Star Wars - Fugitives
by marcovandehaar
Summary: Dive into Fugitives and join two unlikely partners on their journey to escape the grasp of the newly risen Empire. It's the story of Marin and Jes. A young and ambitious Jedi initiate who witnessed the destruction of everything she has stood for and an old, burned out warrior who has found peace in his new home with the Jedi order.
1. An unexpected briefing

Marin hurried through the corridors of the Jedi temple, almost bumping into a few startled knights who were just coming around the corner. "Excuse me! Sorry!" She could still make it!

It wasn't fair! This morning should have been a simple, boring morning. Her schedule had consisted of modern republic history followed by a class on practical meditation techniques. That is, until the message...

Tired from the intensive training the day before, she'd gotten out of bed and did her regular morning ritual on auto pilot. She was almost out of the door of her room when she noticed she had a message marked "URGENT", it read: "Report to room TF034 at 9:00. You are relieved of all other classes for today. - Master Erad'un."

9:00?! That was in 10 minutes! And she had to be at the other side of the temple complex! How could she have missed the message when she got out of bed! And by the way, what was this all about? Was she in trouble? Was this a test? Relieved of all other classes?! Oh well, no time to think about it now. And she started running towards the other side of the temple complex.

Life at the temple was al she knew. All of her life she had been training to become a Jedi. Now eleven years old, Marin was a light skinned, brown-eyed Jedi in training. She had been born on Alderaan, but due to the young age at which Jedi younglings are recruited she had little to no memories of that time. The temple was her home now, the Jedi her family. She was a fanatic student, always trying to excel et everything. Lightsaber training was not her favorite class though. She was way more interested in everything she could learn about. She loved to dive into the vast collection of knowledge the Order had built up. She already knew that she wanted to specialize in becoming a consular when she was a knight, just like her greatest example, Master Shaak Ti.

Now, however, she was late! And she needed to pick up the pace if she was going to be in time...

She reached the classroom just before 9:00. When she entered she saw that she wasn't alone. Already sitting in the classroom were 2 other students; Oris, a Twi'lek boy who Marin mostly knew as someone who would get excited about pretty much anything. And Johk, a boy originally from Taris. Johk felt more at home in the background. Always calm and ready to listen when Marin needed someone to talk to. Marin, uncertain what was going on, gave Jokh a quick glance. He returned it with a small shrug and a questioning look. Apparently he also didn't have a clue. Then master Erad'un entered the classroom and closed the door.

"Good morning students. My name is master Erad'un. I will be briefing you this morning."

After a quick glance at the students he continued. "All three of you are here because you've been selected for a special assignment." Jedi master Erad'un's voice was clear and strong as always. You could instantly feel his presence when he spoke. The dark skinned Jedi master stood before the classroom and continued:

"Master Yoda wanted to give the introduction for this assignment personally. Unfortunately he had to leave unexpectedly for pressing matters. He did however record a holo-message which will hopefully make things a bit more clear for you." Erad'un said, and he pressed some buttons which dimmed the light. A blue, life-sized image of master Yoda appeared over the holoprojector.

"Good morning students. Challenging times these are. And it is in these challenging times, when our order spread thin all over the galaxy we find, most clear, the need for young, strong and determined Jedi is. So even when endure the conflict does, continue, your training must."

It wasn't every day you were briefed by master Yoda himself. It was as exciting as it was unexpected. And from the look on their faces, the other two students were as surprised as she was. Only fifteen minutes ago she was summoned here without knowing why and what this was all about. She had known the other students, Oris and Johk, for as long a she could remember. They had grown up together at the academy with the other younglings. Now she sat here, in this classroom wondering why they had a private briefing by a member of the Jedi council...

"A challenge you will face today." Yoda continued, "Many years of training you have had. Nearing the age you are, when as a padawan, your training will continue.

To see, how far you have come and a suitable master to help us find, trials you must face. Unannounced, some of these trials will be. The first, today, you will face.

A trial? Becoming a padawan? Marin, completely caught off guard, quickly shot a glance at Oris, who sat there with his eyes wide open, returned an equally surprised look. She quickly focused back on master Yoda...

The blue projection of the Jedi master continued: "As a Jedi, Always prepared to assess a situation you must be. Arisen, a conflict has somewhere here on Coruscant. To resolve this situation, Assistance of the Jedi was requested. Together, investigate you will, all sides and aspects of this situation. Together, a resolution you will find. Master Erad'un, one of our most experienced consulars, accompany you he will. I'm sure , many questions you all have. But operating on limited knowledge, part of the assignment is."

"Faith in all of you, I have. Some of the brightest students of your class you are. But remember: " Yoda's voice dropped almost to a whisper, "Real this conflict is. Of the consequences of your actions, mindful you should be. Because real they also will be."

He continued in a lighter tone of voice: "The word I now give back to master Erad'un. Fill you in on the operational details, he will. Unfortunately, Tend to other matters, I must. May the Force be with you!"

As the holo image of master Yoda disappeared and the lights in the room brightened again, Master Erad'un stepped forward from the corner where he had quietly stood.

"Now, students, don't worry if you're surprised by all this." Erad'un said, "As master Yoda explained, this was the intention. Don't be afraid though, your training should have prepared you for anything we you will likely encounter. And I will be there to guide you through this. Remember, the way you handle this situation together will be evaluated. This will be used to determine whether any of you are ready to start training as a padawan.

We will depart at 10:15 from shuttle bay three. No need to bring any luggage, everything you need will be on board of our shuttle."

"Our destination is in a commercial area in the Aaren district on the other side of the planet. I will use the time it will take us to get there to brief you on the situation and answer any of the questions you might have as best I can. The time that's left you can spend on planning how you're going to handle this. Remember, it is important that you work together and that all three of you support the resolution. By the way, I'm sure you have met mister Jes Darrin at some point here at the temple, he will be our pilot. He will also be available to transfer one or more of you to a secondary location while the rest stays on site if the investigation requires it."

"One more thing, you are free to discuss what you have heard here with each other, but please do not mention anything to the other students. They will get an assignment like this too someday. And we want it to be a surprise. Now, you have about an hour to get ready and report to the shuttle bay. Any burning questions that cannot wait until the briefing?"

Marin could think of a thousand questions she would like to ask, but something in Erad'un's voice told her they could wait. The others must have picked up the same signals because no one said anything.

"Good, I will see you in the shuttle bay. May the Force be with you." And with that, Erad'un left the class room.

As the students were left alone the classroom stayed silent until Erad'un's footsteps faded in the background. That is, until Oris almost shouted:

"Did you hear that!? We're ready to become padawans!"

"Slow down Oris.", Johk tried to calm him down, "You heard master Yoda, this is just one of the tests. And we have to pass it first. It is pretty awesome though. What do you think Marin? Can we do this?"

"I don't know... this kind of caught be by surprise. But wow, a real consular assignment." This was the part Marin was most excited about.

"Yeah, I know! When I was summoned here I couldn't stop wondering what I had done wrong this time!" Oris said excitedly. "I was so relieved when I heard it was a briefing for an assignment! Of course we'll pass! we have to! Even Master Yoda has faith in us, he said so!"

"I guess we'll have to give it our best!." Marin said. "By the way, did any of you think he looked old?"

"You mean master almost-900-years-old Yoda? I don't think there's anything alive in the galaxy that's older then him!" Johk joked.

"I know that," answered Marin absent mindedly, "I just thought he looked older than usual. Like something is weighing down on him."

"It must be the war. He has a lot of responsibility with all the Jedi generals fighting against the separatists", Johk explained.

"Exactly!" Oris said, "And only a couple of days ago the skies were filled with laser fire! If it weren't for Anakin Skywalker and Master Kenobi they would've kidnapped the supreme chancellor!" Like always, Oris became more and more excited when he talked about the Jedi fighting the war. "I want to be just like Anakin when I become a knight!"

"Yeah, yeah, we know Oris. Let's go back to our dorms and get ready. We have just under an hour to get to the shuttle bay. And I know Erad'un doesn't like it when students are late! " Johk said.

"Have you met him before? Erad'un I mean?" asked Marin. "Not really. I just heard stories. He mostly teaches consular stuff. He's supposed to be alright, just as long you don't get on his bad side."

"What about Jes Darrin, what is he doing on this assignment? He isn't even a Jedi!" Oris said.

Johk answered: "Isn't he some kind of mechanic? He usually works in the hangar bays I think. I know he occasionally helps out as a pilot."

"I think it's because so many of the masters are deployed somewhere in the conflict. " Marin explained. "But if both Yoda and Erad'un think this is a good idea, that's good enough for me..."

"I heard he used to be a soldier. Before he worked at the temple I mean" Johk said.

"Some kind of soldier?" Oris questioned, "I don't believe it. I mean, why would he be piloting here instead of fighting on the front lines?"

Marin let it be. She was way too excited about the assignment to worry about who was flying them there...

They walked back to the dorms and got ready for their first real consular assignment.


	2. Excitement and Fear

The Aaren district on Coruscant got its name from the Aaren Galactic trading company. A long time ago Aaren Galactic was one of the largest and most successful trading companies in the galactic core. At its top Aaren was so large and influential that the Senate decided to name the district housing its main office after the company. Aaren Galactic's size became it's downfall however, when the company proved unable to keep up with a changing galaxy. After falling prey to a hostile takeover by a conglomerate of competitor trading companies it was cut up into a lot of smaller companies and distributed amongst the buyers. Today only the district name reminds of one of the most successful commercial enterprises in the history of Coruscant. The district has always continued to flourish as a commercial center housing the prestigious offices of some of the most important trading companies in the galaxy.

Jes sat in the cockpit of the transport shuttle en-route to the Aaren district. He'd put on some music and was enjoying the flight. It had been a while since he visited this side of Corrusant. He might as well enjoy the view.

Jes was one of the rare exceptions of people working at the temple who weren't Jedi. He helped out with maintaining the various craft which were stationed at the temple and did the occasional piloting job. This particular assignment was new to him. Normally multiple Jedi would accompany the students on an assignment like this but with many of the Jedi being deployed in the conflict, they could use all the help they could get.

"Good song..." Jes said to himself and started whistling softly to the tune. Way better than the stuff the put out these days. It was then that master Erad'un entered the cockpit,

"Well," Darin said, "Were they as nervous as they looked?"

"Hah!" mused Erad'un, "They're a bit nervous alright, but it is to be expected on an assignment like this. They did well in the briefing just now. The asked some important questions and they already agreed on a basic plan of approach. I have high hopes for them."

"Every time again I'm amazed at how much responsibility you give to students this young." Jes said.

"I can imagine it must seem overwhelming at times but they are training to become Jedi. That means they must be able to handle situations with enormous responsibilities. We feel it is best to teach them young, when you're still allowed to make mistakes. The boys are twelve years old, the girl is eleven. These situations offer enormous learning opportunities. But I do get your point. In some ways, these aren't kids anymore. They do need to grow up very fast compared to other children of their age. Sometimes it seems like a high price to pay..." Erad'un reflected while looking out of the viewport.

Jes nodded, "Well, I'm glad to hear they're doing ok. Can I ask what the assignment is about?"

"Sure, " Erad'un answered, "It's about a conflict between the Exxiss Trading company and OSI Exclusive Imports. There was some dispute about the import rights for certain goods and both parties have contradicting statements about who owns these rights. OSI also accuses Exxiss of being in league with the separatists, a most serious accusation in times like these. It's up to the students to find out what's going on and who is in their right. That's the short version anyway. "

"Ah, sounds like a tough assignment." Jes said.

"Yes, " Erad'un agreed, "There are many subtle complications at play. But I have a good feeling that they'll figure it out. How are we doing, by the way? Are we still on schedule?"

"Yes we are. We're about to enter Aaren airspace and we'll be arriving at the Exxiss facility in about 10 minutes. " Jes confirmed.

"Very well, I'll go see how their plan of approach is coming along and make sure they're ready for our arrival. " And with that, Erad'un left the cockpit.

A few minutes later Jes saw the commercial district coming up in the viewport. He turned off the music and tried to raise the Exxiss compound. "Exxiss facility 112, this is Shuttle Dantooine asking permission to land. Authorization code Alpha-Alpha-0-0-1-4."

A few seconds later there was a reply from the comm. "Shuttle Dantooine this is Exxiss facility 112, you are cleared for landing at platform Bravo-2. Right in front of our main entrance. Do you need further assistance?"

"Roger that Exxiss facility. No need for further assistance, see you when we touch down."

"Acknowledged Shuttle Dantooine, Exxiss facility 112 out."

And Jes entered the approach vector into the shuttle's computer. He keyed the intercom and said: "Hello back there, this is your pilot Jes Darrin. We have almost arrived at Exxiss facility 112 where I'm told you will start your assignment. Please prepare for arrival."

He could see the facility clearly now. On the penthouse level of one of the highest buildings in the region was a large platform containing a courtyard and the Exxiss district office complex.

It wasn't a very large complex but it looked quite classy with a curved white exterior and large deep blue transparisteel windows.

"They must be importing some exclusive stuff there." He said to himself.

In front of the main entrance of the building there was a large, exquisite looking garden with 2 big grass fields which contained the 2 landing pads meant for guests.

Jes put the shuttle down on the right side of the garden which the shuttle computer marked as platform Bravo-2. The courtyard was an architectural marvel by itself. Because the spire was higher than anything else in the region it almost looked like you could see across the entire hemisphere from here.

He powered down the drive systems, cleared the air locks and lowered the aft ramp. He then went to the back where he saw that the students were ready to get off board.

"Welcome to Aaren, people. The Exxiss facility is right outside. I'll be here if you need me. " Jes said.

"Thank you for the easy flight Mr. Darrin. We'll let you know if we need you."

"Alright, good luck out there!" With that, the Jedi left the shuttle.

From the boarding ramp Jes saw a few people outside apparently welcoming the Jedi guests. After some short and friendly looking conversation the entire party made for the front entrance and disappeared inside.

Jes took in the impressive facade of the Exxiss company from the viewport. "Not the worst place in the galaxy to spend some time." He mused to himself and finished all the standard post-flight diagnostic programs on the shuttle. He got his datapad from his backpack and sat back. Time to catch up on some reading. The only thing that could happen today was that he had to fly some of the students to an OSI location to continue with the investigation there. He expected them to be busy with the Exxiss investigation for at least a few hours. So he opened 'The grand strategy of the Mandalorians, the first age' and he started reading.

It was about 2 hours later, when a proximity alert from the shuttle's computer ripped Jes from his deep-dive into Mandalorian history. The displays showed a republic low altitude assault transport approaching the Exxiss facility. "What in the five brothers is this..." the said to himself and tried to hail the incoming transport.

"Incoming republic transport, this is Jes Darrin of the Jedi shuttle Dantooine, is there anything I can assist you with?"

The response was almost immediate. "Shuttle Dantooine, this is LAAT 253, please hold your position and remain on board. We'll be with you shortly."

Jes needed to know more. "LAAT 253, we are here on an assignment from the Jedi temple. Can I ask what this is about?"

There was no response. "I repeat, LAAT 253, we are on Jedi business. We were not expecting anyone. Can I ask what is going on here?" Still no response. The transport maintained its vector. It landed on the adjacent landing platform in front of the main entrance. Something didn't feel right...

He saw clone troopers emerge from the shuttle. It wasn't the signature white armor or the dc-15a blaster rifles that they had that triggered Jes' alarm bells; It was the pattern in which they moved. two groups of four soldiers and one of three. Two of the groups approached the main entrance of the buildings from two sides. The three others were heading towards the shuttle. This looked like a breaching scenario! What was going on? Where they assaulting the Exxiss facility? Was this part of the exercise?

It was then when he saw the front entrance opening. One of the students, Oris, Darin thought his name was, came out. He stopped suddenly when his confused look switched between the clones approaching the entrance from both flanks.

To Jes' horrid surprise the first clone squad opened fire on the student and Oris collapsed.

"They shot the kid!" Jes yelled in complete astonishment.

Time seemed to slow down while Jes took in every detail that happened in those seconds. The troopers hadn't hesitated. More importantly, as far as Jes had seen, they hadn't identified themselves or given any kind of order before they took aim and shot Oris. The shots were clean, two hits to the torso. The clones coldly moved on to the front entrance while one of them quickly checked Oris' lifeless body while passing. They apparently were clear to fire at will. Then Jes realized: "The Jedi were targets!"

Reality came rushing back at light speed when Jes noticed the clones that were approaching the shuttle now had their blasters raised. He was a target too! He knew he only had seconds to come up with a plan. This shuttle was unarmed and there were no weapons on board. He was outnumbered and out-gunned. He needed to create an advantage, fast. His mind sank into the mode which once had been his second nature. Cold, fully concentrated and determined, his eyes narrowed. Decisions were made on instinct and everything else was muscle memory. He couldn't believe how easily it all came back after all these years.

The shuttle! The shuttle was his only weapon. Jes quickly entered the master override codes in the shuttle control panel. He engaged the engines and lifted the shuttle about five meters in the air while ignoring all the alarms and madly blinking indicator lights. The approaching clones stopped moving and immediately started firing at the shuttle. Jes lowered the aft boarding ramp and keyed in the commands to send the shuttle directly at the approaching clones at full power. The shuttle engines came to life with a roar and the shuttle started it's short but explosive drive towards the ground. Jes ran towards the exit hatch and jumped out. He hoped that he could get to cover while the clones were too distracted with the shuttle. He landed in the grass and quickly rolled behind a hedge on the edge of the field. He ducked and turned just in time to see the shuttle crash into the ground right where the approaching clones where standing. With its engines at full power, the shuttle had built up so much momentum that it ploughed through the field right into the stationary landing craft. A large explosion engulfed both craft in a fireball. His distraction seemed to have been effective in all ways he meant it to be: The clones near the craft had been taken out and as far as he knew no one had seen him jump out. Jes quickly shifted his attention to the main entrance. "Damn! It had already been breached. The first two clone squads must already be inside. That meant at least eight hostiles in the building." He had to get to the Jedi, quickly.

He ran quickly but silently towards the front entrance but as he approached the breached door he heard 2 pairs of footsteps quickly approaching.

Two troopers. They must have been sent back to investigate the explosion. He quickly backed up to the wall next to the door opening. When the 2 troopers came out he grabbed the left one in a choke hold around his neck while using him as human shield. The second clone tried to shoot Jes out of reflex but instead killed his partner. Jes, who had already grabbed the blaster rifle from the hand of the collapsing clone, shot the second one in the head. Another two troopers down. He took the blaster rifle and a grenade attached to one of the clone's utility belt. At least he was armed now.

Jes scanned the entrance area, it looked clear. He immediately noticed another body behind the front desk. It was an Exxiss employee, probably a secretary. She had been unarmed. Whatever their mission was, the clones must have been under orders to leave no witnesses.

The district office for the Exxiss company wasn't very large. As far as he could see from the outside the building had two levels with two wings. There were at least five more clones inside. He had no idea where the Jedi were but he was still outnumbered and couldn't risk getting flanked while heading upstairs. He hurried into the left wing hallway containing entrances to multiple meeting rooms. He saw six motionless bodies of Exxiss employees who were in the middle of a meeting. The meeting rooms were sound-proof. They hadn't even heard the clones coming.

The left wing seemed clear so he moved into the right hallway with a similar layout. When he peeked around the corner he saw two troopers walking away from him, clearing side doors. He didn't take any chances and quickly shot them both. "Okay. The ground floor is clear."

He quickly moved upstairs. The second floor of the building had a few larger meeting rooms and personal offices. A large door in the central room was blown open. Jes sneaked along the wall and peaked inside. His heart sank. There were three clones. One of them was huddled over a body in a robe. Must be Master Erad' un. They hadn't noticed Jes yet. He heard one of them say: "No word from bravo-2. They must have run into resistance downstairs. Go check on them while we clear the rest of this floor. " Which was answered with a short: "Yes, sir!"

He needed to act quickly while he still had the element of surprise. He stepped out in the doorway in a prone position and opened fire. He took down 2 of the clones. The third one managed to duck behind a desk and started returning fire. Jes ducked back behind the wall. He couldn't risk using the grenade with the downed Jedi in there. He wasn't sure he was dead. He hoped that the clone didn't realize that. It was worth a try...

Without activating the grenade he threw it through the door opening and it landed behind the desk. He quickly rolled into the room taking aim where he expected the third clone to move. The clone jumped away from the incoming grenade which left him exposed. Jes took him out with two clean shots to the torso. He moved inside to check on the downed Jedi. He immediately spotted another body. A trooper who apparently hadn't lived through the initial confrontation. That was all of the clones he had seen storming the building.

Behind the desk were two more bodies which made his stomach churn. Apparently another Exxiss employee in an expensive looking suit and... another one of the students. Both were cleanly taken out and did not show any sign of life. Master Erad'un's lightsaber lay on the floor in an extension of his arm. As if he realized something was wrong, but was too late. The student, a human boy named Johk, was shot in the back. Probably one of the first to take fire. At least they didn't suffer.

Perhaps it was a terrorist attack from a separatist group which had procured some clone armor and weapons. Jes needed to be sure. He crouched next to one of the clone bodies and carefully lifted his helmet. His hopes sank when he saw the face he had seen a thousand times before. They were clones alright. So the Grand Army of the republic had turned on the Jedi. It was almost too crazy to imagine.

Then he realized there was still one student missing: the human girl. Marin. "Please let her be okay." Jes quietly said to himself.

He noticed a door on the left side of the office was open. According to his count, all clones were down. But you never trust on a count made in the chaos of combat. So with his blaster rifle drawn he carefully stepped in the room. Another door on the opposite wall was open. He made sure the room was clear and moved through the open door. He carefully started checking behind the desks dreading to find another body. When he moved further into the second room he suddenly heard a sound behind him add spun around.

"Don't shoot! Mister Darrin! Please! It's me Marin!"

The girl! She was alive! He lowered his rifle and stepped over to her. "Marin! Are you hurt?" And the girl ran over to him, threw her arms around him and bursted into tears.

She started speaking chaotically: "We were...We were talking with mister Onalla when there was a loud explosion and a blinding flash! The next moment there was blaster fire everywhere and master Erad'un, he, he told me to run! I didn't know where to go and... and...I..I hid in here! What's happening mister Darrin? Where is master Erad'un? And Johk?' Marin asked sobbing.

"We were attacked by clones, Marin."

"By clones?! But they're on our side!"

"I don't know what's going on Marin. But I'm afraid master Erad'un and Johk didn't make it. The clones took them out together with all the Exxiss personnel. "

"Oh no!" she said in complete disbelief. "And Oris? He went outside to get a few datapads from the shuttle!"

"He came outside just as the clones were approaching the entrance. He was the first one they took down. If it wasn't for him they would've taken me by surprise as well."

Marin started to shake, edging on panic.

Jes put his hands on Marin's shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes "Marin, listen to me. What happened here is horrible and I cannot explain it. We need to find out what is going on but we are still in danger. We have to get out of here first and I cannot do this alone..."

"And I cannot do this alone..."

The words Jes said sank in and Marin realized she was shaking. She had to calm down. She swept the tears from her face and closed her eyes. She tried one of the Jedi meditation techniques she had learned that should quickly get her in a more calm state. She pushed the horrors she just experienced out of her mind for now. She regulated her breathing and tried to feel the Force flow through her. She felt the Force all around her and she felt it in Jes Darrin. She felt the Force flow into her body and her breathing became more regular. Within half a minute she opened her eyes. Jes was still right in front of her, looking at her with a calm and comforting look that even though she knew it wasn't true, seemed to say he was in complete control of the situation.

"Okay... okay, I'm here. What do you suggest we do?"

"I don't think there are any more troopers around but I'll bet they got word back of our resistance and reinforcements are already underway. We need to get back to the temple. Now, I had to destroy our shuttle to take out the troopers outside the building. But this being a trading company I expect there to be a few company craft in this facility we should be able to take."

"The terminal in mister Onalla's office!" Marin said suddenly. "In order to do our investigation we were granted full access to the Exxiss network. I can find the company craft from the terminal."

"I'm afraid all the equipment in that office was destroyed in the fight. "

"Okay, the main desk then. " I should have all the access we need from there"

"Sounds like a plan. Let's go."

"What about master Erad'un and Johk! We can't just leave them there?"

"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do for them now. We need to get back to the temple, quickly."

Marin and Jes headed through a side door into the corridor and down to the first level. In the lobby Marin saw the body of the secretary.

"Nothing we can do for her either." Jes said and he took the body and carefully placed it on the ground next to the desk.

Marin sat down behind the desk and started working on the terminal.

"There's an exit to an executive hangar on a sub-level from the turbolift over there. There should be two shuttles in the hangar. I have the launch codes and the codes for opening the hangar at the back of the facility."

"Great work Marin! I can fly one of the shuttles. They shouldn't be flagged yet but I bet they will be when the reinforcements arrive and they see what happened here. So we need to get as far away from here as we can, as quickly as we can."


	3. Flight

The shuttles were there and the codes worked. Within ten minutes they were in the air. To buy some time Marin also managed to close the hangar bay doors behind them.

About thirty minutes in flight, having focused on their escape and not the events that happened at Exxiss, they both managed to stay pretty calm. "I still can't raise the temple. No response." Marin informed Jes.

"Hmmm, could be something with the comm grid. We still have some time of flight ahead of us and it doesn't seem that they're on to us yet. We'll keep trying." Darrin answered.

Marin had to use every meditative trick she learned to calm her spirit after what happened. She was curious though, "You know, you seem awfully calm for someone who just witnessed a mass murder."

"I've had some experience." Jes answered, rather not going in details on the subject.

"Experience with this?! So the rumors must be true then?" Marin questioned. She was not satisfied with Jess' answer.

"What rumors do you mean?"

"Some of the students at the temple said you used to be some kind of soldier before you worked at the temple."

Jes, figuring Marin had enough to worry about decided to tell her the truth.

"They are. I was a soldier."

"Did you fight for the republic? I thought they didn't have an army before the clone wars."

"I didn't fight for the republic. I'm from Corellia. I was a marine in the Corelian Defence Fleet. Do you know the Corellian system?"

"Sure, it consists of five planets. They call them the five brothers right?"

"Exactly, the CDF was responsible for the defense of the Corellian System. I was part of NSOC, the naval special operations command. "

"You were in the special forces?"

"Yes. For a time I was in an experimental unit supposedly consisting of the best of the best NSOC had to offer. We were deployed in the more delicate situations: High-profile kidnappings, deep cover missions, high value extractions and such."

"Wow, that explains how you took down an entire clone squad unarmed."

"Well, I was armed once I got inside."

"How does an elite special forces operative ends up being a mechanic in the Jedi temple?"

"Mechanic and pilot." Jes pointed out with a small smile but he was distracted by an indicator from the control panel. "Wait a minute, that tale will have to wait until later. I'm receiving a signal here. It seems to originate from the Jedi temple! I don't understand, does this tell you anything?"

"Let me see...Wait a minute, this is the recall signal. They've activated the Jedi beacon!"

"I must have missed that memo, what is it for?" Jes asked.

"Well, its typical goal is to recall all Jedi back to the temple on Coruscant in case of an emergency. It is possible to attach other message components like detailed messages but there are none present here. Just the ping."

"Hmmm, strange. Maybe there is something wrong with the temple comm array. We'll be back in the temple district in about half an hour. We'll try raising them a few times till we get there."

Marin thought she recognized some resistance in Jess' voice when she asked him about how he came to work at the temple so she decided to drop it for now.

She got up and said: "I'm going to meditate, try to get my head straight . Please let me know me when we're nearing the temple."

"Will do."

Then Jes configured the autopilot to fly to the Jedi temple. He sat back, trying to clear his mind as well.

With a subtle alarm the autopilot notified Jes that they were approaching the set destination. The navigation computer told them they were approaching the temple district. Traveling back to the other side of the planet, night had quickly fallen. When Jess looked up through the viewport he could not believe his eyes, was that the Jedi temple? The Jedi temple was ablaze! He rushed to the back where he found Marin still sitting in her meditation pose. Her eyes however, were still closed. When he looked closer he saw that she was pale as snow and lightly shaking. She silently whispered: "No... we cannot go to the temple. We need to turn around."

"But the recall signal, they might need our help!" Jess said to Marin.

Marin seemed to calm down a bit, opened her eyes and looked at Jes, "No. We cannot go there. We have to go somewhere else."

It was then that Jes realized that when he had told Marin he could not do this alone, this were not just comforting words. She had seen something he could not have seen himself and he needed to trust her.

"Ok. I'll change our direction and we'll figure something out. " And he went back to the cockpit. Because he didn't know where they would be going he disengaged the autopilot and turned into the next traffic lane away from the burning temple.

A few minutes later Marin sat down into the co-pilot seat. "I'm sorry about the confusion. I had a vision while I was meditating. It was not clear. I just saw flashes. People hurting and suffering. And flames. It was so intense, so much pain. It completely overwhelmed me. I never experienced anything like this before.

"Don't worry about it. I'm amazed at how calm you stayed after all we've been through. Now, let's try to find out what's going on. If the temple is on fire and what you have seen is true, there must be something on the HoloNet."

"I'll look into right away" Marin said. And she flicked on one of the data pads and started looking for news related to what they had seen. It didn't take long before she found it.

"This can't be... It says here there's been a rebellion against the republic, by the Jedi!? That there was an assassination attempt on the supreme chancellor by a group of Jedi Masters." Her head shook in disbelieve as she read on. "The attempt was thwarted but the chancellor was wounded in the attack... Steps have been taken to put down the rebellion. All Jedi and those who aide them have been declared ENEMIES OF THE REPUBLIC!?"

"What?! Jes exclaimed. "That cannot be! That's a bloody lie!"

"All the mayor news sources are reporting the same story."

"Does it say when all this happened?" Jes asked.

"It says here it was only a few hours ago."

Jes tried to put some of the pieces together. "Right before we were attacked. That's too much to be a coincidence. It's all timed way too perfectly to be a response to an attack. If this is true, it was well coordinated and had to have been planned long before today."

"We need to find out the truth and get in touch with the remaining Jedi." Marin said.

"I agree." Jes said. "I have an idea. I have a friend down in CoCo town who I trust and who's always been well connected when it comes to information. Maybe he can tell us what's really going on. It's low-key, away from the temple and he's not affiliated with the Jedi or the Republic so I don't think they'll be looking for us there. What do you think?"

"Sure, it's the only plan we've got. Let's go."

A little later Jes put the shuttle down in a crowded parking lot a few blocks away from Dex's Diner. Just in case the authorities were on the lookout for their acquired shuttle and happened to pass by.

Going to Dexter was a long shot but it was the best he could come up with in this short time. He had first met Dexter a few years back when he was accompanying Jedi master Obi Wan Kenobi on an assignment. Kenobi had informed him of the turbulent and colorful past of the owner of diner before they first went there. More than anything, Jes had been amazed by the sheer amount of knowledge Dexter possessed. He had enjoyed a wide range of jobs in his days. He had, for instance, worked as a bartender in the outer rim, a scout, a prospector and an arms dealer. All of this had taken him across half the galaxy. Next to becoming a walking encyclopedia his adventurous life style had also made him well known in all kinds of circles. Some a bit more obscure then others. On Coruscant, being the largest melting pot of species from all over the galaxy, he felt at home. Having a restaurant in one of the most colorful districts of the planet had been a long time dream.

"This is where we find your well connected friend? " Marin asked with a very doubtful look on her face while observing the cozy looking diner.

"It is. You'll see." Jes said, not really knowing what to say that would do the owner of the diner any justice. Better just to go in and let her meet Dexter for herself.

The diner was empty but for one customer who was quietly sitting at the bar and the waitress droid FLO. When Jes and Marin entered they were kindly greeted by FLO.

"Hiya there mister Darrin, welcome back! And who is this pretty young lady?"

"This is Marin, FLO. She's my niece. " Jess lied.

"Well hello Marin, welcome to Dex'! Please have a seat. Can I get you two anything?"

"Is Dex in, FLO? I'd really like to speak to him. And I'd like a caf and how about you Marin?"

"No thank you, I'm good."

"Sure, he's in the back. I'll go get him and get right on your order."

When they had just sat down in a booth a large four-armed alien wearing a dirty looking apron on came over. "Jes Darrin! How have you been?" When he eyed Marin, who was still in her Jedi robes he added: "Ah..." Dexter, who immediately recognized Marin's robes, quickly called over FLO. "FLO, darling, would you be so kind as to inform mr. Ocklar that we'll be closing early today due to...family matters? He'll understand. and close the blinds and turn down the lights please."

FLO immediate rolled over to the only patron in the diner and inaudibly said something to him. The patron got up without hesitation and walked past them to the exit. Jes noticed that he only quickly nodded to Dexter without laying eyes on him and Marin. He must have perfectly understood the delicacy of the situation.

"Now, who do I have the pleasure to meet here?" Dexter said, looking at Marin. "This is Marin, Dex. She's a student at the temple." Dexter sat down in the booth opposite to Jes and Marin. "Hello Marin, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too Mr. Jetster." Marin replied.

"And well informed too. I already like you Marin, please, call me Dex."

"Now, the weariness on your faces tells me enough. Please Jes, tell me what happened."

"Well' I'm sure you caught something on the Holonet already..." And Jes told Dex what happened today. Without leaving anything out he told him about the assignment, the clone attack and the Jedi who were killed.

"…We wanted to get back to the temple but we saw it was on fire. Then Marin had a vision and we thought better of it. I did not know where to go Dex. We're completely in the dark. I hoped you knew something more about what's going on. What's all this about a rebellion?"

"My, my. That does look grim." Dexter said. "Yes, it's all over the news now. But I guess you saw that much. They say the Jedi tried to assassinate the chancellor and take control over the senate. "

"You buy any of that?" Jes asked.

"No. But what I see concerns me greatly. Many of my sources which used to provide me with intel have suddenly gone dark. The others say they don't know anything. I only got some snippets. I heard that the temple district is under military lockdown now. And some of my sources tell me there is no contact anymore with the Order. Other than that I only got word from a friend on Mygeeto who had seen a squad of clone marines cut down Jedi master Ki-Adi-mundi." I originally didn't think much of it, but together with the destruction of the temple, the stories on the HoloNet and what you're telling me, it almost looks like plot of some kind to take down the Jedi. The timing also seems too perfect for any of this to be any response to the so called assassination attempt."

"I thought the same thing." Jes said grimly, "The clones who attacked us never gave any kind of command or made any attempt to arrest anyone. They were there to take us out and leave no witnesses."

"Very troubling indeed. The sheer size of this operation suggests it has been planned on the highest levels. Maybe even Palpatine or a part of the Senate is in on it."

Jes took a deep breath taking it all in and sat back with a desperate look on his face.

"What do we do now Dex? Where can we go?"

"Well, looking at the scale and orchestration with which these attacks are taking place I think it is best to lay low for a while. I would suggest you leave Coruscant for now and go somewhere where they won't be looking for you."

"How in the five brothers are we going to do that? They must be looking for us by now. And since the war security has been extremely tight everywhere, especially at spaceports. They will have us the moment we pass a security checkpoint, access financial accounts or get id'd by a facial recognition cam."

"Hmmm, I might know a way to get you of Coruscant. But you must make a plan from there. I know some people who owe me a favor who might be able to help."

"That is very kind you Dexter but I don't want you to put yourself in trouble on account of us."

"Don't you worry about that. Get Marin and yourself somewhere safe until this all cools down. I have friends in the Order who have helped me in the past. I see it as a way I can do something in return. And who knows, we might run into each other again someday."

"Where will they be taking us?" Marin asked.

"I'll leave the operational details to them. The less I know, the better. But you can be assured it's a place which will give you options. These people are very experienced in what they do and I've worked with them many times."

"What do you say Marin?" Jess said.

Marin was trying to replay this surreal day in her head. This morning she had been a student at the Jedi temple, ready to take on her first assignment on her way to becoming a Padawan. Now she was on the run, hunted by the entire grand army of the republic with the Temple in flames and the entire Jedi Order shaking on its foundations. She still could not grasp what was happening. She needed to focus on the here and now... but could not think of anything else they could do but to keep running.

"I think it's our best option. Maybe our only one." Marin finally said.

"Okay, if your people could get us of Coruscant, we'll figure out the rest." Jess said.

"Right, I need some time to contact some people about the trip and the necessary paperwork. In the mean time I'll also cook you something nice and warm. You both should get something to eat. You might have a long trip ahead of you. It will also take some time to get everything ready. You can stay here tonight, I doubt anyone will be looking for you here. I'll improvise some beds. I'll doubt you'll get any sleep after what happened today but at least you can get some rest." Dexter said.

"Thank you Dexter" Jes replied. And with a modest smile Dexter was off to the back leaving Jes and Marin sitting at the booth.

"I don't really know what to say." Jes said after a while.

"That's ok. Neither do I. I'm just glad that you are here to help mister Darrin. I'm not sure what I what I would have done if I was alone."

"Please, call me Jes. And the same counts for me, Marin. I would've flown straight to the temple. Who knows what might have happened."

And then FLO came rolling over with two trays filled with food.

"Here you go! Specialty of the chef! I hope you like it" She put down the trays and rolled back to the kitchen.

Just when they were finishing the last bits of food Dexter came walking back to their table.

"Hello again friends, I hope the food was all to your liking! I managed to get a hold of my friends. They're going to set this up. Now all we have to do is wait. Sometime early in the morning a cab will come to pick you up. The cab driver is another friend of mine. He will have new identichips for you which will help you to travel anonymously. I suggest you leave your old ones here, I will dispose of them."

"You can arrange that this fast?" Jess asked skeptically.

"Well' it's a rush job alright. He told me there will not be time to hack the necessary data in the central databases so the chips will not work here on the Coruscant spaceports. The hubs my contacts normally take people to have less strict security protocols and no direct connections to the central republic database. From there, you'll be able to travel covertly but with relative ease. I also asked him to bring you some clothes so you can lose the robes Marin. No reason to make it easy for them to find you."

"Thank you Dexter. You're very kind." Marin said.

"You're welcome. The cab will take you to the rendezvous location. The exfil is done by two friends of mine which I trust with my life. They won't ask for any kind of payment, this is all taken care of. Just do as they say and they will have you off this planet before dawn without anyone noticing. Now, I've made two improvised beds from the benches in a few booths over there. I suggest you try to get some rest. I expect my friend will be here in a few hours. "

"I cannot thank you enough Dexter. You probably saved our lives."

"Don't mention it. Just get out of here safely."

Jes had mastered the art of sleeping in chaotic, stressful situations out of necessity a long time ago when a rested mind and body could mean the difference between life and death. Marin could not sleep. Her head was full with everything that had happened today. She decided that some meditation would probably clear her mind a bit. Maybe the force would show her things about the journey that lay ahead. And she went into trance.

She was apparently more tired than she thought. A few hours later she woke up when she heard a noise. Jes was standing over her.

"Marin, are you awake?" He whispered.

Marin quickly sat upright "I am, what's going on?"

"Our ride is here. " and he gave her the dirty looking clothes the taxi driver had brought with him.

"Well, it won't win me any fashion awards, but it'll do nicely for walking around low-profile. I see they brought matching pairs." Marin remarked after looking at Jes, who had already changed. "Yep, at least they smell cleaner then they look." And she went to change into her clothes in the diner bathroom. When she came out she saw Jes and Dexter quietly talking to a Rodian. She walked over.

"Ah," Dexter said. "There she is. This is Tiller, the cab driver I told you about. Tiller, this is Marin."

To Marin's surprise Tiller answered in standard without accent, a quite uncommon feat for a Rodian: "Nice to meet you Marin. Are you ready? We must get to the rendezvous point."

"I'm ready." She said and looked at Jes, who nodded.

"Ok, here are your new identichips. As I'm sure Dexter already explained to you, don't use them on Coruscant yet. With the heightened security, altering the central system will take some time. Ok, if we're all ready, Let's go."

Before they left Marin gave Dexter a big hug. "Thank you Dexter, for everything!"

"You're more than welcome Marin. Please come and see me sometime when this is all over."

"I promise!"

And they got in the taxi. Once they were in the air Jes asked: "So, where is the rendezvous point?"

"These people use different locations all the time to prevent the authorities from finding patterns. I'm taking you to the industrial district south of here. From there our contacts will take over. "


	4. Delta and Omega

The ride to the rendezvous point was quick and smooth. Traffic was light on this part of Coruscant at this hour. Once there, they met their two contacts; A human, Dex had said he was from Raltiir, and a Bothan. They escorted them to a small Corellian cargo freighter.

"Hello, and welcome on the Dawn's edge." The Raltiiri said to Jes and Marin when they were aboard the freighter, "You can call me Delta, and my furry friend here Omega. You must be Jes and Marin?"

"That's right." Jes answered.

"Good, " Delta continued, "Nice to meet you both. We're going to get you of Coruscant. This might be a bit more of a challenge than usual because of the heightened security everywhere with the war going on and the other events of today but I'm sure we'll be fine. Please follow me up the boarding ramp." The one called Delta continued while they walked aboard.

"When we've left Coruscant we'll plan a few short jumps to mask our trail as best as we can. We will then take you to Ba'an, a mining colony world on the edge of the core region. Due to its location next to two major hyperspace lanes Ba'an has become one of the main entry points for war refugees into the core. It has become a very busy place with the infrastructure of an asteroid. This makes it a perfect place to blend in if you're trying to go somewhere and don't want to draw attention to yourself. We've done this many times before so please don't worry about a thing. Omega, please show our guests around the ship and take them to their quarters, I'll start pre-flight."

Although it seemed perfectly ordinary from a distance, Jes noticed the details immediately. This freighter was heavily modified. Extra armored plating was added and he could see a few bulges in inconspicuous places on the hull possibly indicating boosted shields or perhaps counter measure systems, or both. If anything, it added to the smugglers' credibility. He wasn't very confident on trusting them on just their ego's.

The Bothan called Omega asked them to follow him while Delta headed for what must be the cockpit. Once they entered a large open area in the center of the ship he said: "This is the main hold with a small communal area to your left. If the ride goes smooth you can spend some time here relaxing." He walked into a corridor on the left until they came to a room filled with electronics. "This is engineering. You don't want to worry too much about this place except this here..." He pushed a seemingly random set of characters into a keyboard of a maintenance terminal and a section of wall to the left of the terminal opened up revealing a small dark space. "We call this our guest room. If we happen to be boarded by customs officers or something looking for anything illegal, you will have to hide in here. It won't be comfortable but the walls are specially insulated to prevent most scanning equipment from detecting anything out of the ordinary in here. To prevent the detection of irregular energy signatures there are no computers in there and just one small red light. The door can only be opened from the outside. When someone is attempting to open the door the red light will start blinking. When we open the door we always knock on the wall panel three times so you know it's safe. Of course we expect we won't be using these and you can spend the journey relaxing in the communal area until we reach Ba'an. Come, I'll show you to your quarters."

Through another corridor they were led to a small cabin containing Four beds. "Again, don't expect any luxury, we're not a cruise liner but you can rest here if you're tired. Ah, I hear the engines have come online. Let me take you to the cockpit."

Omega led them to the cockpit. It was a room with a wide viewport and an overload of indicator lights, switches, displays and other electronics. Jes noticed that unlike from the outside, everything in here looked like top-notch equipment and up to date with current technology. There were two chairs, Delta was in one of them, busy punching a dozen or so switches and carefully monitoring some of the displays.

"There you are. You like our little cruise ship?" Delta said, while remaining concentrated on the indicator lights and displays.

"Looks good. Corellian right?" Jess answered diplomatically. In reality however, from what he had seen, he was more than a little impressed. He had seen many modified smugglers' vessels back in his NSOC days but not many of them looked this well-equipped.

"Sure is. Might be a little outdated here and there but that gives her a nice low profile while she's extremely reliable and the modification options are endless."

Omega sat down in the copilot seat and said: "Okay, we'll be taking off. Feel free to roam around the parts of the ship I just showed you. You guys look like you could use a rest. "

While Omega quickly finished some of the preflight checks, Delta initiated take off. Jes and Marin retreated to the main hold communal area and sat down.

"So," Marin said, "Your friend Dexter really came through on this."

"Yeah, he's very resourceful. It must be some favor these guys owed Dex. These services usually aren't cheap. He wasn't lying either, these guys look like pro's. I'll make it up to him some day when we return. "

They felt the ship lift off and start it's run to orbit. A few minutes later they heard Delta through the intercom: "Okay, we're in higher orbit. We're navigating to the first jump coordinates. We'll let you know if...wait, what's that?"

"They're hailing us." They heard Omega softly say in the background.

"Okay, I'll be right back after we deal with this." Delta said. And the intercom fell silent.

Marin looked at jess, "This doesn't feel right..."

A moment later Omega came into the main hold looking annoyed, "It's Coruscant customs. They have requested we stop our engines and want to board us. They say it's a routine check resulting from the heightened security measures after today's events."

"You worried?" Jes asked.

"Nah, Delta tried to bust their balls to see how serious they were but they sounded like they have been doing this all day and really just wanted to get this over with. I'm going to have to ask you to come with me. You'll have to stay in the guest room until they're done checking us."

They followed Omega to engineering where he opened the hidden entrance to the small dark space. "There are narrow benches on either side of the room. Please remain seated until we get you out. Seeing how busy these guys were I guess it won't take very long. And here, " He gave Jes a blaster pistol which Jes immediately recognized as a DL-44 heavy blaster. "Just in case. Dex mentioned you know how to handle weapons."

"No problem." Jes said, checking the weapon for charge and removing the safety.

Omega looked at Marin and added "Don't worry kid, we'll be fine."

"I'm not worried." Lied Marin, she actually had quite a lot of doubts. She didn't know these Omega and Delta characters. Come to think about it, she didn't even really know Jes Darrin all that well. At least he seemed to have her back so far... Jes seemed to have read her mind and gave her a reassuring look while they entered the small room.

"Okay, just stay calm in there and we'll have you out in no time." And Omega closed the door.

The room was dark, except for a small red light in which they could just make out each other's silhouettes. It was quiet in there. Neither said anything to prevent making any perceivable noise. They heard some distant noises probably indicating docking activity. After that they heard nothing for a while. The insulation seemed to work both ways. The following ten minutes or so seemed to last about three hours. Finally they heard some noises indicating someone was approaching the entrance. The red light started blinking.

No one had knocked. They both realized it and Jess readied the blaster, aiming at the door.

Marin closed her eyes and concentrated. She could make out only one presence nearby other than her and Jes. Wait, it was familiar! She had felt it before, very recently...

Jes was ready to open fire when he felt Marin's hand on his, gently pushing it down. Just like with the temple, Jes thought. And decided to trust her. He lowered the blaster.

The door opened and he held his breath. Delta stood in the doorway waving.

"You can come out now, we're clear. They were as overworked and eager to get it over with as we expected. We'll be jumping as soon as possible." and he walked of in the direction of the cockpit.

Jes looked at Marin, "Good call back there. I would have taken him out without hesitation. Could you sense him?"

"Thank you. Something like that, yeah."

"We're starting to make a pretty good team, don't you think?"

Marin showed a thin smile for the first time since they were attacked. "I guess we do. Marin and Darrin huh?" And they stepped out of the guest room.

When they walked into the main hold they saw Omega. "Like I said, nothing to worry about, right?"

"Except that I almost shot your partner." Jess said to Omega.

"What do you mean?" Omega asked.

"He didn't knock when he opened the guest room door." Jes decided to leave out the details on why he didn't fire. "Good thing I hesitated."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Omega said, noticeably irritated and walked in the direction of the cockpit, yelling ...

"Delta, you bloody piece of Bantha dung!"

"Whoah, what is it?" a voice from the cockpit said while Omega left the main hold and went towards the cockpit.

Omega's voice was loud enough to hear back in the main hold. "You didn't knock before you opened the guest room?! We got out at Onderon, escaped Geonosis and even pulled of that job on Muunilinst and you almost managed to get shot by our cargo?!" Omega ranted on furiously, "For all we know he's a bloody commando and would have blown your head straight off."

"Yeah... sorry about that. I was so caught up in the moment I must have forgot. But hey! We're still here! And I suggest we focus on getting out, quickly!"

Omega appeared in the doorway shortly after this "I'm sorry about that. Sometimes I think something up there is watching over that idiot. The things he gets away with..." and he wandered back into the cockpit still muttering under his breath.

Marin gave Jes a questioning look. "Do they still look like pro's to you now?"

"You'd be surprised at the stupid mistakes pro's make sometimes. I still think we're in pretty good hands here, we just have to keep our eyes open." And they sat down on the benches as the stars stretched out into lines.

"So, where are we going to go? After Ba'an I mean." Marin asked.

"Well, I have an idea but I wanted to discuss it with you first. "

"Okay, tell me about it!"

"Right, have you ever heard of Andean?"

"Nope."

"Well, it's a small world in the mid-rim. There's small colony there. nothing more than a few farming communities and a central space port. I know one family there that owns a farm where we could lay low for a while. It's far from the Core but still relatively safe. It has not been touched by the war. It's also categorized as a legacy world which prevents large scale exploitation. The republic has little to no presence there. "

"Farming, you?" Marin jested

"Heheh, you would be surprised."

"So you've been there, how do you know these people?" Marin asked.

"One time, when I was a marine we had a leave coming up. A good friend of mine from my team asked me if I was interested in spending my leave working on a farm. He had an uncle who owed a farm on Andean. A place of which I had never heard of until I met him. He was always talking about it, how he was going to take over the farm from his uncle one day. His uncle had had an accident which left him immobile for a few standard months while the harvest season was coming up. He could use the help, and it would be a good time, away from everything.

Now, to most people it would sound silly to spend your leave working. But to us it was exactly what we needed. The things we saw and did during our missions. It could really get to you if you let it. Keeping busy with physical work, away from everything, was the best way of dealing with it.

So I went. We stayed at the farm with my friend's uncle and his wife. And I spent the next few standard months working on the harvest.

The colony was located on the central forested belt of the planet and the harvest is in the dry season so the weather was great. Good times... Anyway, it's the only place I can come up with which is relatively safe and little to no republic presence. How about you? Any ideas?"

"Not, not really." Marin answered. "I've lived in the temple for as long as I can remember. I have no other family other than the Jedi and all the worlds I visited are republic worlds. So, sounds like Andean will have to do. Your friend, did he take over the farm? Does he live there?" Marin asked.

Jes stayed silent for a moment, looking out the viewport. "No, my friend died while we were on a mission about a year after our farming trip. I have not been in contact with his uncle since that happened. That was about twelve years ago. I'm not even sure if they live there anymore. But I think it's worth a try.

"Oh, I'm sorry. " Marin said.

"Don't worry about it, It was a long time ago."

"Okay, " Marin said with a bit of hesitation. "Well, I'm in. Do you know how we can get to Andean from Ba'an?"

"Not yet. But since Ba'an is next to important hyperspace lanes, I'm sure there'll be opportunities to travel out of the core. We should have no problem finding a ride to the mid-rim. I should have enough credits on me to get us there."

They both sat there for a moment staring at the hyperspace star lines passing by outside the viewport.

A few jumps later Omega came into the main hold. "We're about to enter the Karoen system. We'll drop out of hyperspace near Ba'an. You can come into the cockpit if you like. I's quite a view with the busy traffic there. "

Jes and Marin entered the cockpit just in time to hear Delta announce: "Exiting hyperspace in three, two, one..." And the star lines faded back into stars. Ba'an loomed in the center of the viewport. An arid, rocky world with only a few regions which are habitable, Ba'an was home to only a few mining colonies. It was its location next to two major hyperspace lanes on the edge of the core region that made it a popular refueling stop for ships who were traveling out of the core and more recently, refugees from the war stricken worlds who were traveling into the core, hoping to find peace and a new home.

"Wow, it really is busy here. What's that space station?" Marin asked.

"That's Bastion station, an old military outpost used mostly as a refueling station. Recently it has been retrofitted for use by Ba'an customs after the refugee situation started escalating during the war. What is up with all the military presence though... wow, check out the Venator!" Omega answered.

"No clue." Delta said, sounding surprised. "I don't remember ever seeing this before near Ba'an. Let's play it cool though. Wait, we're being hailed... by the Venator!"

" _Corellian transport, this is the republic cruiser Endurance. Please identify yourselves and transmit your flight plan for inspection."_

Marin gave Jes a worried look. He nodded to her, acknowledging her concerns. "Alright," Jes said. "Let's keep calm, we don't know what they want yet."

"Don't worry, our cover should hold." Omega said reassuringly. He answered the com:

"This is Corellian transport Phoenix V, transmitting flight plan now."

The com stayed silent for a while, no-one said anything. A minute later the comm came alive again.

" _Corellian transport Phoenix V, there seems to be an irregularity in your flight plan. Please power down your engines and remain stationary for inspection."_

"I thought our cover would hold?" Jes asked.

"It should, I have no idea what's going on here. We need to find out more. " Delta said.

Omega nodded and answered the comm: "Republic cruiser, this is Corellian transport Phoenix V, what seems to be the problem? We're on a tight schedule and would like to make our stop here as short as possible."

 _"Phoenix V, your flight plan shows you originated from Alderaan but your drive signature was scanned leaving Corusacant just a few hours ago. All ships entering from Coruscant will be inspected. Please power down your engines or we will be forced to engage."_

Delta noticed an alarm on one of the displays. "Drat! We've got 3 v-19's and a boarding craft coming in on an intercept course from the Venator. Time to intercept on present heading, eight minutes." Delta said.

"Should we go back to the guest room?" Marin asked looking a bit nervous.

Omega looked at Delta and said: "No, These aren't you regular overworked customs. This is the military and what they're doing is quite irregular. They might know more then they're letting on. The risk is too high. We cannot let them board."

"I agree." Delta said. "But we have more tricks up our sleeve. Time to put our skill to the test. Are you thinking what I'm thinking Omega?"

"I assume you mean the 'Onderon special'?" Omega asked. "We could use the asteroids for a drop cover."

"Exactly. You take our guests and explain the plan. I'll feint the power-down and prepare our run."

"Got it. Jes, Marin, please follow me. There's a part of the ship I haven't shown you yet, I'll explain on the way ." Omega got up and took Jes and Marin past engineering to what Jes recognized as an escape pod area.

"Escape pods?" Jes asked.

"Yes, and no." Omega answered cryptically. "Listen, I'd like to give you an extensive briefing but under the circumstances the short version will have to do.

It looks like an escape pod, but it's not anymore. We modified it so it can be used for covert orbital delivery. In short, We'll use it to get you to Ba'an.

We'll make it seem that we're running away while calculating jump coordinates. Using the asteroids for cover we'll launch the escape pod which will use a short engine burst to place itself stationary near the cover object, in this case the asteroid. Our own engines being at full power should mask the pod's engine burst from scans. "

"Sounds like a risky maneuver." Jes commented.

"It's not very conventional flying, I agree. but Delta's the best pilot I know. He'll pull it off. "

"So, we've removed all unnecessary electronics from the pod to minimize the energy signature. Unfortunately, this also means there are no means for manual control from within the pod. It will follow the programmed instructions only. With its small size it will evade all but the most extensive scans. With the pod hiding in cover, we'll continue our distraction run clearing away from the cover object to pre-calculated jump coordinates and get the hell out of here while losing our pursuers through a series of pre-calculated jumps. Once we're out of here the pod will become active after a programmed time and start a preset course for planetary entry. It will do so at a controlled speed mimicking a small meteor. The pod engines have been upgraded for better control and landing capabilities. Once it reaches a certain altitude the engines will slow the pod down to landing speed. We'll set it up to take you near Ba'an's space port Par'iva. You should be fine from there. "

"Sounds risky" said Jes.

"That comes with the business I'm afraid." Omega answered diplomatically. "But we think it's the best chance we're going to get."

"You've tried a maneuver like this before?" Jes asked, still not very sure of this plan.

"Yes, we've successfully used this method many times." Jes thought he noticed a hint of hesitation in Omega's answer but they were running out of time, so he didn't enquire any further.

"Good to know." Jes said, "Well, Marin, you ready?"

"I... guess so, let's get in."

"I's been nice meeting you Marin and Jes. The best of luck to the two of you and your journey."

As Omega closed the door behind them Jes could just make out Delta through the intercom: "Delta here, Everything's set. We're approaching the asteroids. Isn't this exciting? I've always wanted to try the Onderon special with live cargo!" Jes looked through the door's viewport at Omega. "What was that?!"

Omega quickly put on an exaggerated smile and said: "No worries! We promised to get you to Ba'an, we'll get you to Ba'an!"

Marin and Jes gave each other worried looks. " Well, we're in this now. Let's hope this all works out." Jes said.

"Funny thing though," Marin answered, "I don't feel worried at all..."


	5. Refugees

"I'm getting too old for this..." Jes complained while sitting near the escape pod with his head in his hands.

"That, was awesome!" Marin said excitedly.

"We were plummeting to our death with unbelievable speed in a an uncontrollable modified trash can. What is awesome is that we're still alive!"

"Exactly! Lighten up Jes, we made it, I told you not to worry!"

"Easy, Marin. Let me try to get all my organs back into their proper position."

Despite how Jes felt, it had pretty much worked out the way Omega had explained it; After it had launched the pod had stayed in the shadow of the asteroid for a while and had activated about thirty minutes later. The engines had come alive and had given the pod a nudge which caused just enough orbital decay to make the pod gradually plummet towards Ba'an. The engines had performed the occasional small corrections, probably to assure they landed in approximately the right area, and had gradually increased the speed so that the pod had looked like a meteor that was burning up in the atmosphere. It must have been quite a sight from a distance. Inside the pod however, Jes had been positive that they were going to die. Just when he thought they would be crashing down on the planet they pod's thrusters went into full reverse, pulling it out of spin and slowing it down. The g-forces had been so great that they had almost passed out. The landing had not been very smooth either but it was far from the cataclysmic impact Jes had expected. The pod had performed some kind of cooldown procedure which meant there was a lot of extinguishing foam everywhere when they opened the hatch. But they were both unhurt and had safely exited the pod. Marin had seemed unbelievably well after a descent like this while Jes himself had felt like the inside of his entire body had been rearranged, his head felt like it had already exploded and pretty much every joint ached like hell.

"Remind me to get back in shape. I used to do stunts like this every day." Jes groaned and got up.

"Hah, mister special forces is feeling dizzy?." Marin joked.

"Ha-ha. Well I'm glad to see you're doing fine miss."

"Do you think anyone noticed us coming in?" Marin asked on a more serious tone.

"I doubt it, I did feel like a bloody meteor. But I guess we'll find out soon enough."

"Let's see where we are." Jes walked back to the pod.

"With any luck they left the emergency supplies in there when they made the modifications. "

He went back inside and brushed away some of the foam. "Ah, there it is." He opened a small locker under one of the benches and retrieved a small package containing some first aid equipment, a small torch, some water, emergency rations and a pair of macrobinoculars. There was no communication equipment in the pod but then again, there was no one they would want to reach out here anyway. He climbed back out of the pod and used the macrobinoculars to scan the black horizon. It was dark here but the busy skies above the space port showed a lot of drive flares and navigation lights of the ships that were coming and leaving. They had landed about 25 kilometers south-west of the space port. Far enough not to raise any suspicion but close enough to get there before morning.

"I must say, they pulled of one hell of a drop. After all that, we are right were they said we would be. Well, better get going. We want to use the cover of night to get to Par'iva and I don't have the faintest idea how long the day-night cycle is here. "

"Well," Marin said "Guess we'll find that out too."

And they started walking across the rocky landscape towards the spaceport.

"Marin," Jes said after a while. "We still have some time before we reach the spaceport. We need to devise a cover story about who we are and how we got here. Any idea?"

"Well, it's obvious that we should be refugees if we want to blend in. We're both human so we probably want to pick a world where humans are common which has suffered in the war. How about Lynni, in the Abrion sector?"

"Agri world right? Hmmm, not a bad idea. The Abrion sector has been under confederacy control from fairly early in the war. According the holonet reports conditions on some of the worlds there have been diminishing rapidly as the separatists needed more and more resources for the war. Am I right? "

"Exactly! Do you think I can pass as your daughter?" Marin asked.

"Nah, we differ too much I think. How about you're my niece. And my brother wanted to get his daughter out of occupied territory. He himself could not go because of the farm and all. I offered to take you to the core until things calmed down..."

As they walked on towards Par'iva they talked through some of the details of their cover story. Ba'an didn't have a moon so it was pitch black around them. There were some lights in the distance to their right which were probably from a mining complex. In front of them the space port lit up the horizon. Jes thought it looked busier than a space port should be at this hour. There must be a lot of refugees coming in. At least it looked like they would reach Par'iva well before morning...

After a while Marin noticed something in the sky. "Wait... Did you see that?" She said while pointing to the sky above the Par'iva.

"What, one of the ships?" Jes asked.

"No, look! there it is again! It looks like... fireworks!"

Jes put the macrobinoculars to his eyes and zoomed in, his eyes weren't as sharp as they used to be. "Well I'll be, you're right, fireworks!"

Between all the lights and the drive trails of the air traffic they saw fireworks going off. As they came closer to the space port they could also hear them.

"Do you think it's some kind of holiday here?" Marin asked with surprise in her voice.

"I don't know. Could be, I guess. Delta and Omega never mentioned anything about it."

A while later they found themselves in the outskirts of Par'iva. It was still dark. The town had all the trademarks of a remote space port city. Simple pre-fab housing for those who lived there, many warehouses and offices owned by various trading companies and some large hangars for all the transport ships. There were also a few large terminal buildings. These looked like they had been heavily expanded to accommodate the refugee traffic. As they walked on through the residential areas they came to the city's central district. Even at this time of night there were a lot of people about, mostly around the terminal buildings and, in the down-town area, around the bars, inns and other recreational facilities.

"So, where do we go?" Marin asked.

"Well, we want to find a ship that's going somewhere to the mid-rim which is willing to take us with them. My guess is we search the bars in this place. That's usually where you find crew of the ships. Maybe we can find someone to help us. "

"Good point. Let's see what we can find."

After asking around a bit on the street they found a cafe which was supposed to be frequented by freighter pilots, captains and their crews. The place was dark but had more atmosphere than they expected from the plain and simple front through which they came in. There was a large bar with the back wall displaying dozens of colorful bottles filled with strong liquor mostly from the outer rim. In the center of the room there were a few tables and half-hidden in the back wall were a few alcoves which offered a bit more privacy. There were some holonet vid screens on the walls displaying some indistinct news bulletin. There were only a few patrons at the time. Two Trandoshans who looked like mechanics were having a quiet conversation at the far end of the bar and a more formally dressed human was reading a datapad in one of the alcoves. The bartender was a Duros who was eying them suspiciously from the moment they came in. Jes looked at Marin and nudged towards the bar. "Let's see if he can help us." And they walked towards the bar.

"Hello sir." Jes ventured. "We just arrived from a long journey and we were looking for something to eat and drink. Are you serving at this hour?"

The Duros looked them over. "Only if you can pay. "

Jes put some credits on the bar. "Will this be enough?"

"Sure, sure. You cannot be sure enough these days. Damn refugees. They're all hungry but most of them don't have a credit to spend. I gotta eat to you know?" The Duros looked at Marin and then back at Jes. "We only serve the special at this hour. Eopie stew, prices are on the screen. "

Jes decided to ignore the Duros' tirade about refugees and ask Marin: "Eopie stew, how does that sound?"

"Sounds great, I could eat an entire eopie about now. " Marin answered.

"All right, we'll have two. And some water and two glasses please. " Jes paid the Duros the credits for the meal.

"Coming right up. " The Duros said.

"One more thing. " Jes asked. "We're looking for a ride to Andean, in the mid-rim. Know of any ships in port heading that way?"

"Don't know nothing about that." The Duros said pointing at the human sitting in the alcove. "But since you have credits, you might want to ask him over there. Name's Kerrf. he works for the Channel."

"The Channel?" Jes asked.

"You are new here. The Republic Refugee Agency is the organization tasked with handling the refugees. Finding suitable worlds and transports to get them there. Over here we call it the Channel. He might be able to help you."

"Okay, thanks." And they walked over to one of the tables. "Marin, while we're waiting for the food, how about you see if you can find out if there's any news on what happened on Coruscant. The bartender might know something. I'm going to talk to this Kerrf character and see if he can help us find a ride to Andean."

"All right Jes. I'll also check the holonet broadcasts if there's anything we haven't heard yet."

Marin walked over to the bar where the Duros bartender was perfecting the art of looking disinterested . "Hey mister, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, kid. What is it?" The bartender answered, visibly annoyed at the sudden interruption.

"Heard anything about what's going on Coruscant? We heard some disturbing rumors on the street but our long distance comms were out on our cruiser we came in on."

"I've been hearing about Coruscant all day. What are you referring to? The war being over or the exclamation of the first Galactic Empire?"

Marin thought she must have misheard that... " What do you mean the war being over?"

"Man, you really were in the dark out there weren't you? The clone wars. They say they're over. The Holonet goes on and on about it. The separatist leadership has been defeated and reports are coming in from all over the galaxy that the droid armies are powering down. "

"Wow, we didn't know. But that's great news! Anything on the Jedi?"

"Puh! Never liked those ivory tower idealists one bit. Apparently they staged a coup to take control over the senate and take over the republic. The audio recordings from the supreme chanselor's office were spread all over the holonet. The coup was foiled but the supreme chancellor was badly injured. They Jedi have been arrested and the order has been outlawed. Good riddance I say."

"Yeah... good thing they failed." Marin said a little absent minded. Careful, cannot blow our cover now... "What was that you said about... an empire?" She asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Listen, I'll turn on the sound of the view screen over there, you can see for yourself. They've been repeating it over and over again. I need to get your food ready." The Duros pushed a few buttons on a console behind the bar and the sound of the view screen on the side wall of the room came on. "Thanks." Marin said, and walked over to the screen.

She still couldn't believe what she just heard... the war's over, an empire? What was going on?

When she reached the screen she saw a holonet news bulletin displaying the Grand Convocation Chamber of the Republic senate. There was a figure in a dark robe standing on the central platform next to Mas Amedda. The camera zoomed in... Was that... it almost looked like, it couldn't be... Supreme chancellor Palpatine!? His face looked badly scarred. She could pick up bits of his speech... It was loud, and full of emotion.

"These Jedi murderers left me scarred, left me deformed," Her mind raced, This couldn't be... "The remaining traitors will be hunted down, rooted out wherever they may hide, and brought to justice, dead or alive! All collaborators will suffer the same fate. Those who protect the enemy are the enemy! Now is the time! Now we will strike back! Now we will destroy the destroyers! Death to the enemies of democracy!" The senate roared... He must be behind all of it. But why? And how? How could he possibly have accomplished this? Palpatine went on..."To ensure that we will always stand together, that we will always speak with a single voice and act with a single hand, the Republic must change. We must evolve. We must strive. We have become an empire in fact; let us become an Empire in name as well! We are the first Galactic Empire!"

The Senate went wild.

That was it... absolute power. Total control. The Jedi would never have stood for it. That's why he needed them out of the way. It must be. Marin noticed she was shaking. She suddenly felt afraid. A deep, smoldering fear. She couldn't put her finger on it but she had felt this kind of fear before. Suddenly she knew. She had felt like that before in her vision, when they were going back to the temple.

Afraid to attract too much attention she quickly turned away and sat back down at the table. Soon the Duros came and set down two plates and a bottle of water with two glasses. "Enjoy your meal." Marin's appetite had left her completely. She wanted to thank the Duros to keep up appearances but he had already turned away and walked back towards the bar. Jes came back to the table looking optimistically and said to Marin: "I've got some good news. I've found..." and then he noticed Marin's face. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Marin told Jes what she had learned and pointed him towards the view screen, which was showing another rerun of the same bulletin. Jes sat back down and looked Marin in the eyes. "I'm sorry Marin. I never thought it could be this bad. It must have been Palpatine who's behind all of it. "

"I'm ok. Nothing we can do about it now but get ourselves to safety." Marin said looking down at the table.

"It's a lie you know, about the Jedi." Jes said after they'd been silent for a while.

"I know, but they say they've been presenting evidence all day." Marin replied.

"Evidence can be easily falsified. Especially if someone as powerful as Palpatine is behind it. But that's not why I believe it's a lie.

You know, I never told you how I came to work at the temple. I still owe you that story. It's not a very happy story, but maybe it'll give you some insight into where I come from. You want to hear it?"

"Sure, I think I would." Marin answered.

"All right. It's about time I told someone..."

"To get an idea what happened," Jes continued, "I must tell you a few things about my time in the CDF. You see, my final few years there were very hard. There was a lot of political instability in the Corellian system and there were a few extremist groups which were wreaking havoc mostly on Corellia and Selonia. Then there were some of the bolder pirate groups which took advantage of the instability in the system to turn their operations up a notch. In that time we were almost continuously deployed on missions. Bombings, hijackings, kidnappings, strikes on public targets, you name it. The things we saw, it was bad." Jes' gaze was fixed on the far wall. As if he was seeing some of those things again….

He continued: "Sometimes there were hundreds of casualties. Military, civilians, woman, children... everything. And these people, they weren't amateurs. Most people think we were some kind of heroes who swept in, killed the bad guys and saved the day. Reality was that these were often high-risk operations. We were trained to fight outnumbered but that didn't mean we always won. We lost many good men and women on those missions, time and time again. People you relied on, people you grew close to. Some could handle the stress better than others. Me, I was fine whenever I could go back into action. When there was a team, a goal, us against them. It was simple. But whenever I stepped back into the normal world, it would eat at me. The things I had seen, the things I had done. The friends who I'd lost. " Jes sighed.

"Then, one time, my team was sent to Selonia where a few high-profile political figures had been taken hostage in a government complex. It did not seem like anything special at the time. A few unknown terrorists who were armed with some blaster rifles and who had possibly had planted explosives in case it all went wrong. We were only called in because some of the hostages were government VIP's. We were to infiltrate quietly, locate the hostages and get them out so the military could then safely clear the complex. What we did not know was that we were set up. Apparently the NSOC operations had caused some very powerful people some very big problems in some of our previous missions. They needed to make clear that they were still more powerful than anything the government could throw at them. So they decided to make a show out of taking out the most prestigious special operations unit in the CDF.

There was a mole somewhere very high in the CDF. They knew who would respond to the mission, who got sent, and when. They had so much information, they could even tap into our live tac-data feeds once we were deployed. Instead of a few averagely armed extremists they had an army in there. And we didn't have a clue. That night I saw three of our teams being shot down or blown up. Some of the wounded were even lined up and executed just to make a statement. I managed to survive by sheer luck. I was wounded but managed to get out together with the only other survivor of my squad. I carried him out but he died in my arms when we got outside. That night broke me. It was the last straw.

I was wounded and in shock for a while and woke up in a military hospital on Corellia hours later. I had lost a lot of blood, I was disoriented and couldn't concentrate, couldn't think straight. Days past but everywhere I looked I saw the battle, I saw my brothers go down. I couldn't sleep. Even when they drugged me I had nightmares. That's when I decided to run. I needed to get away, or it would kill me as well. So I ran. I fled the hospital, I fled Corellia, I fled the system without telling anyone. And I was good enough so that no one found me. I went to work as a security guard for a cargo company but that ended after a few 'incidents'. I ran further and further. But the sleeplessness continued. I became jumpy, always on the edge and extremely violent at the smallest triggers.

Despite my condition I kept traveling, taking jobs that would let me hop planets. Just to keep changing the scenery. After a few more short jobs I ended up on Coruscant. And not the pretty parts I tell you. I lived down on the lower levels. I lived on the street. No home, no nothing. My skills got me odd jobs here and there for some of the more shady organizations. I had jobs in security or simply just as muscle. This is also where I got hooked on the more heavy drugs. Some of the spices made me feel so numb I seemed to forget all my pain. I would be able to sleep for a few hours. At least, that's what it felt like in the beginning. I needed to take more and more of them to get the same results. And in the end they wouldn't help anymore but I just had to keep taking them because I needed them.

I did a lot of stuff back then that I'm not proud of. Hell, I can't even remember half of what I did so it's probably even worse than I can imagine. I used to steel speeders and rob people on the street. Even in the state I was in, it was easy. I was trained to recognize all kinds of people and I could easily take on multiple targets unarmed. I reckon, with my skills and instability, I was one of the more dangerous people down there at the time.

One night. I was sitting in an alley. High on one drug or the other, I can't remember, scoping out my next target. I needed more credits, to get the next fix. I saw a small robed figure approaching. I remember I thought he would be an easy target, but hardly worth the effort. Looked poor, walked with a stick, probably didn't have anything on him. But he stopped next to the alley and turned towards me. This kinda took me of guard. I mean, most people who noticed me back then walked away from me. He walked straight into the alley and stopped right in front of me. I remember thinking that if I took him out there, no one would see it. He was only about four feet tall but something inside me stopped me from doing anything. His hood was down so I couldn't see his face. Then he took his hood off and I saw this green, weird looking face looking me right in the eyes. For some reason, I didn't move. I remember him putting a hand on my shoulder, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. He just stood there for a while and when he finally opened his eyes again he took his hand of my shoulder and said, and I remember this as the day of yesterday: 'Done, you are not. Clean yourself up, you will. And report, you will, to the Jedi temple, tomorrow morning. Work for us, you will. ' He put his hood back on, turned around and walked away. I had no clue what just happened, but suddenly I realized my head was clear. My high was all gone. The blur was gone. the numbness was gone. Just before I had time to get angry about that I realized that also the nervousness had left. For the first time in about five years, I felt completely calm, at ease. I wasn't scared.

One other thing that was very weird: In retrospect, it was like the words he said to me were imprinted in my mind. I was going to do everything he said, there was no doubt about it. So I cleaned up in the back of a bar somewhere and reported to the temple the next day. Apparently I was expected. They gave me simple quarters where I could sleep and I could start assisting in the garage. For some reason they knew that I had some skill in maintaining and flying all kind of craft. I didn't understand any of it, but I was grateful, so I didn't ask. Well, that was about eight years ago. "

"Wow, I never knew. Thank you for telling me." Marin said. " It was master Yoda wasn't it?" Marin added after a while.

"It was. He helped me from time to time. Helped me process some of what happened. So did some of the other masters. Master Yoda saved my life that day. I wouldn't have survived long down there living the way I did. If the drugs wouldn't have killed me, it would have been one of my targets or even one of my employers. "

"Did you ever ask what it was he saw? When he said you weren't done?" Marin asked.

"I never dared to ask and he never talked to me about it afterwards."

Marin stayed silent for a minute, processing Jes' tale. "Do you think it had something to do with this?" Marin said, pointing at the world around her.

"I don't know, perhaps. I know I am here now. And I wouldn't have been here if it weren't for Yoda and the other Jedi. So that is my story." Jes answered.

"I think I understand now." There was a small pause. "I like master Yoda. I hope he's all right." Marin said.

"If I'd have to bet on one Jedi being all right, I'd bet on Yoda." Jes commented.

After a while Jes added softly: "Try to eat something. We don't know when we're going to get a warm meal again. Kerrf couldn't get us on a ship to the mid-rim. But he did have a lead on a republic transport which is docked at Bastion which should be going to the Noson system. That's is where Andean is. I arranged a place to sleep for us for tonight. Well," he added, "where we can get some rest at least. Tomorrow we'll have to find a way onto Bastion"


	6. Bastion

Kerrf had tipped them about an inn which offered decent rooms for reasonable prices unlike most of the cheap improvised refugee "hotels". They call them hotels but they looked, sounded and smelled more like stables. The inn offered a simple but mostly clean room. There was one bed and a chair. Jes told Marin she could have the bed while he made an improvised sleeping spot on the floor.

"It's all right," Jes said. "This floor is like a feathered bed compared to the places I've slept in the past. " Marin was too tired to object any further and almost instantly fell asleep when she laid down on the bed. Jes also had little trouble falling asleep. It had been a tiring day.

The next day they went over to the terminal for the shuttles to Bastion station. Kerrf had explained that it used to be easy to get up there but since the military showed up there were checkpoints at the terminal. Clone troopers were stationed outside these checkpoints and everyone that wanted to get up there would have to have his identichips scanned. Jes hoped that the identichips delivered by Dex' contact would work as well as he'd said. It was their only way.

The terminal building was relatively small compared to the far bigger transport terminals. There were two public entrances at the front of the building. Both entrances had a small line of various humans and aliens in front of them, all waiting to get inside. two clone troopers were stationed at both entrances, standing motionless as one after the other people from the line stepped up to the checkpoint and presented his or her identichip to the scanner next to the security door. When the chip was scanned trooper would look at the data presented on a small screen and a few moments later the light above the door would turn green and the door would open. The process didn't go very quickly but there were no more than fifteen people in each line so it only took about ten minutes for them to reach the security door. Jes took his identichip and held it to the scanner. The guard looked at the screen but the light did not turn green, it blinked red a few times. The guard turned to them and started to walk over. He checked a console to next to the security gate and approached Jes. "You two, come with me." The clone said.

Marin started to feel nervous. She heard Jes say to the clone: "What seems to be the problem sir?"

"Something with your identichips or your visual confirmation. Please follow me."

Jes continued the conversation. He wanted to stall for time so he could think of some way out of this. "They were working fine yesterday." he said, "What could possibly be wrong?"

"Sir, I won't ask again. Follow me and we'll sort this out. "

Marin saw that Jes was in trouble. She knew it was risky, but she could help. She closed her eyes for a second and concentrated on the clone. She really hoped this would work. She opened her eyes again and looked straight into his helmet visor and said: "All is in order. It must have been some glitch in the scanning system. You'll open the door and let us through now. And we'll move along. "She saw a quick flash of surprise on Jes' face but he quickly composed himself when he heard the clone repeat in a somewhat meekly voice: "All is in order. It must have been some glitch in the scanning system. I'll open the door and let you through. Please move along. " and the clone entered some commands in the console. The light turned green and the door opened. Jes and Marin quickly walked inside before the somewhat confused looking clone had time to get second thoughts. There were still a lot of people round them waiting for the gate to the shuttle so they didn't say a word until they were safely aboard the shuttle heading for Bastion station.

When the shuttle approached Bastion they saw the Venator class star destroyer was still stationed stationed there. Up close they could also see that there was a lot of construction work going on. Engineers and construction droids were working all over the outside of the station. "What do you think they're doing there?" Marin asked.

"I have no clue. Looks like a lot of military equipment though. Look there," Jes pointed to the only one of the stations docking wings to which two ships where currently docked. "If I'm not mistaken one of those freighters is our ticket to the Noson sector. We're going to have to find someone who can help us get a ride. "

The inside of Bastion station wasn't any different. There was construction going on everywhere they looked. Most areas where locked off because of it. Others were only accessible to military personnel Apparently the only docking wing which was operational for civilian vessels was docking wing 1c. All the passengers from the shuttle were directed to wing 1c. Unlike the rest of the station, which was all sterile bare-metal and crawling with military personnel, 1c was bustling with life. There were offices of shipping companies, shops and even a small market filled with stalls selling all kinds of exotic goods. There was only one cantina which was open, probably due to military regulations. It was called the Hollow Star.

"Look, " Jes said pointing to the entrance to the Hollow Star. "I'll bet we'll find our officer there. If he's not there, maybe there's someone who knows where we can find one. We'll get something to eat too. First, I'll go check at that shipping terminal office over there. See if the ship we're looking for is here, and when it will leave."

Apparently there was a republic transport vessel docked which scheduled to leave for the Noson sector tomorrow. The ship was called "The Altin Dias". But they couldn't just go there. They had to find someone who could get them on board. Ten minutes later they walked into the Hollow Star. Jes ordered some food and he and Marin sat down at a booth in a corner of the room. It was a quiet hour and most of the other booths were empty.

"So, " Jes said. "Back at the checkpoint..."

"Are you mad at me?" Marin interrupted him.

"Mad at you? No, I'm not. " Jes answered.

"Well, I used the Force in public. I thought you'd be angry. I know I could have blown our cover, but I was scared and I didn't want to be captured by the military! " Marin explained.

"I know Marin, I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. I sure didn't have a clue how we would get out of this one. We should remain extra careful though. I had no idea you were that strong in the Force"

"The cognitive powers have always been my strong point. They're the most important for consular you know. It was a risk though. It doesn't always work."

"Well, I'm glad it did this time. And I'm glad we're on the same side." Jes said with a small smile. The bartender brought their food and they started eating.

Shortly after they had finished eating Jes heard a voice coming from behind him say: "Cold nights on the Cloudland Peaks this time of year."

Jes froze. Not just because he had been sure the booth behind them had been empty just a moment ago, but also because that sentence triggered a memory from a long time ago. It was a code they used in order to identify undercover operatives. He remembered the particular mission this code was from very well... Was this? It couldn't be... Jes immediately knew how to respond.

The code refers to the towering mountain ranges on Selonia. The response was derived from a hellish mountaineering expedition in the Cloudland Peaks which was part of NSOC training. The expedition was extremely tough and conditions were often unworldly bad. Every year there were casualties, trainees falling down one of the cliffs, getting buried in an avalanche or dying from hypothermia in the extreme conditions.

Jes heard himself say: "Made it all the way to Drifter's peak last year." He heard someone get up from the booth right behind him and turned around.

He couldn't believe his eyes... "Well I'll be damned." was all he could say.

"Jes Darrin! My man, I thought I saw a ghost when I walked in here. I thought you were dead!"

"Nope, still around. Please, sit down." Jes answered as the man walked over and sat down. "How've you been Caen? Wait, where are my manners. Marin, this is Caen. Caen, this is Marin."

"Nice to meet you miss." The man said, nodding to Marin.

"Nice to meet you too." Marin answered.

"I know mister Caen here from back in my NSOC days. He was a field agent for Corellian Intelligence back then."

"That's right." Caen replied.

"You still on the inside?" Jes asked.

Caen looked at Jes for a moment and nodded towards Marin.

"It's ok." Jes said. "She's with me. Whatever you can tell me, you can tell her."

"Ok. Well, I'm back inside actually. I quit five years ago. I'm sure you've heard that Corellia withdrew from the military creation act. Well, here I was, enjoying some peace and quiet when the clone wars broke out. The brass got nervous and needed experience in the field, so they asked me back. I guess I missed the action. "

"Ok, well, did the job bring you to this fine place?"

"Kinda. See, " Caen looked around, trying to see if anyone else might me within earshot, then continued: "The republic is shifting all kinds of military weight around. Corellian leadership doesn't trust the senate for one bit. According to our intel it seems that they're trying to attain control of some major hyperspace lanes leading to the outer rim. We have no idea why, but we think that Bastion is part of that operation. I'm here to see if I can find out something about all of this. Well, enough classified info about me," he said with s smile, "how about you two? Are you two related?"

"Nah, I met her where I work." Jes replied.

"Really, you've been working with youth huh? Tell me where you've been man!"

Jes wasn't in the mood to get into details about the darker period in his life so he decided to leave that part out. "After the mission on Selonia, I was done. So I ran. After a lot of traveling all around I ended up Coruscant working at the Jedi temple. Mostly as a mechanic and a pilot. That was, until a few days ago. but I'm sure you heard all about that."

Caen was silent for a moment. After a while he let out "Oh, shit..." And when realization dawned he briefly looked at Marin. His expression told Marin enough. To her surprise all he said was: "Oh, I see..." In a more serious tone. "Where are you headed?"

"We hope to get to Andean. I know some people there where we could stay for a while. There's supposed to be a Republic transport here heading for the Noson system but we haven't been able to find anyone from the crew."

"The Altin Dias right? " Caen said. "I happen to know the captain. Let me talk to her. I'll get you your ride."

"Really? I don't know what to say!"

"Yeah, Don't mention it. I still owe you one remember? Make sure you report to bay 15 tonight after 19:00. I'll make sure they'll be expecting you. "

"Mister Caen," Marin said, "Do you have any info on what happened to the Jedi? Did any survive?"

Caen looked at her with a sorrowful look. "I'm sorry kid, We haven't heard anything about the Jedi. Our sources seemed to have gone dark. We've also had no luck contacting the temple. We know nothing more then what is being broadcasted on the holonet, which I must say, is very disturbing. I'm very sorry I couldn't be of any more help."

"That's ok, " Marin said, "Thank you anyway."

"Now, I'm sorry we didn't get to catch up more but I really need to go. Listen, Jes, if you're going to Noson, you're probably going to Mirakeii station right?" Caen asked.

"That's right." Jes replied.

"Try to make your way over there again in let's say, two standards months from now? I'll be there too. We have some catching up to do. And I'll promise to try to find out more about what happened."

"I'd appreciate that. Good luck friend."

"You too Jes. Marin, it was nice meeting you. And try to keep him out of trouble will you?"

Marin showed a small smile, "I'll try."

And with that, Caen got up and walked out. After a while Marin said to Jes: "He seemed nice."

"He is. He's also one of the best intelligence operatives I've ever known." Jes said.

"He seemed a little chatty for an intelligence agent." Marin observed.

"Exactly. This man spent a large part of his career deep behind enemy lines. terrorist cells, pirate groups, you name it. If he's survived this long running his mouth like he always does, he must be bloody good. "

Marin smiled and asked: "What did he mean that he owed you one?" Marin asked.

"Me and my team extracted him once when his cover was blown. It was a nasty operation and a close call. We've been close friends ever since."

"Ok. It's a good thing he found us here. I hope he can tell us more about what happened later."

"I hope so too. " Jes answered and hoped Caen would make good on his promise like he always had. They might make it after all.

Later that night, they headed to docking bay 15. They were greeted by a kind crewmember who had been informed to let them onboard and show them their simple quarters. The trip was quite uneventful. Which was a welcome change. They stayed in their simple cabin and took the opportunity to get some rest. The crew mostly kept to themselves but the captain did show up a couple of times. She said she didn't meet many women in her line of work so she took a special interest in Marin. The two of them talked about everything and nothing while Jes just laid back and relaxed. He didn't mind. He could finally catch up on his reading. He thought about the last couple of days and how crazy they had been. They'd made it. They were finally en-route to the Noson system. He could only hope that they would be as welcome as he expected. That they had a place to lay low for a while on Andean...


	7. Shadows

Shadows

A lean man in a black republic intelligence uniform was sitting behind a desk in a dark room. The only illumination in the room came from a small view screen on the desk. The view screen was showing footage from a security camera from a military checkpoint on Ba'an. It showed a line of refugees. One by one they were approaching the ID station which checked their identychips and opened the door when everything was OK. He fast forwarded until an older looking human male accompanied by a young girl, probably in her early teens, approached the station. He presented their identichips. But this time, the light turned red. He saw a guard in clone armor approach the couple.

"Interesting nonverbal communication from the guard there. Almost looks like he's confused." The man said to himself after he watched for a minute and re-winded the video again to when the couple approached the ID check.

This time he paused the video and entered some commands to zoom in on the couple of humans and the approaching guard and he applied some audio filters to enhance the audio feed.

"...I'll open the door and let you through. Please move along." He watched the clone briefly use the console. The light went green and the door opened. The man and the girl walked inside.

He re-winded a little bit and used the imaging functions on his console to extract the clearest possible pictures of the man and the girl from the video feed. If this only hadn't been such a backwater world the security system might have been equipped with even rudimentary facial recognition software.

He pulled up a comm window on his view screen. An image of an officer wearing a similar black uniform appeared. "Sir?" The agent on the screen asked.

"Sergeant, get my shuttle ready. Prepare a course to Ba'an. Take us directly to Bastion station. And run these images through the facerec database. See what turns up. We leave as soon as possible." The officer ordered.

"Yes sir. Your shuttle will be ready in 15 minutes sir."

And the view screen went black.


	8. Freedom

**Part II**

 **Andean, a dirt road**

The hot summer air blasted her face as Marin steered her swoop bike around a small hill that was coming up. Kinnar, who was right behind her accelerated some more and went straight over the hill. His speed made him jump so far over the hill that the tail of his swoop hit the ground when he landed and he had trouble keeping his swoop under control.

"Stop showing off, laser-brain! You're going to get yourself killed!" Marin yelled over the roar of their engines.

"Hahaha!" laughed Kinnar. "What are you talking about? I had everything under control!" And sped forward, ready to overtake Marin. He yelled: "Let's race to Fender's crossing! Last one there is a dead mynock!" and he shot by her.

Marin enjoyed swoop riding. Back on Coruscant she hadn't been allowed to ride in public at her age. Over here it was different. It was the only way to get around. There was no public transportation and the farmlands were too far apart to walk so you had to learn how to ride when you were young. She also liked riding with Kinnar. Kinnar had become one of her best friends. He was about her age, a bit naive about some things but he could be incredibly funny when they were hanging out. She'd met him at the school where they both went. She couldn't believe they'd already been on Andean for two years. The school was nothing compared to the temple academy where she grew up. But it was enough for the small farming community on Andean. There were children from all ages in the community who all went to the school in Andeii about four days a week. The little ones were brought in by their parents but as soon as you were able to ride, you got your own swoop bike. It was a twenty minute ride from the Haal homestead to the town. That is, at normal speed. Marin usually made it in fifteen.

Marin accelerated, speeding after Kinnar. She knew his swoop was faster. But his reckless driving style usually gave her enough opportunity to catch up. "You can just as well give up now, you know I will beat you!" Marin yelled to the dust cloud in front of her. She just needed him to make a small mistake. Then she could pull up next to him and maybe take the lead.

"You wish!" she heard Kinnar laugh. Ash hill was coming up. He might try something stupid like jumping it. It might be her last opportunity to take the lead before Fender's crossing. Marin loved riding her swoop bike. To her it was freedom, freedom to go where she wanted and how fast she wanted to go. Ironically, in a time that she had to hide who she was and where she was from she experienced a kind of freedom she had never known before.

Fender's crossing was a crossroads where the road split up into the access roads to two homesteads. The Haal homestead, where Marin and Jes stayed, and the Tolls homestead, Kinnar's home.

Art and Esper Haal had welcomed them in their home about two standard years ago when they escaped the Jedi purge during the fall of the republic. They remembered Jes from the one summer he spent there helping with the harvest with Harrod, his onetime navy buddy and Art's nephew. Jes had had told them the whole truth. Who they were and what had happened. He reasoned that if they were going to trust them with their lives, they better know everything. Trust is important and always goes both ways. Jes had told her.

The story had angered Art and Esper greatly. Their family had run from under corellian authority long ago to start a farm here. The whole empire story reminded them just why most of the colonists had fled Corellia in the first place. They were more than welcome to stay for as long as they wanted. Art told them their story was safe with them. To avoid complications and to prevent raising suspicions they made up a cover story of them being distant relatives who came to stay with them for a while to see if Jes could take over the farm in the future. Art and Esper didn't have any children of their own.

Ash hill was coming up fast now. Marin saw Kinnar head straight for it. She knew he couldn't resist. She knew the airtime and the landing would slow him down but he was just having too much fun not to do it. Marin subtly banked to the right to avoid the big jump and to maintain as much of her speed as possible. "Yeeeeeehoooooo" Marin heard Kinnar scream when he jumped over the hill. Marin's correction sent her past the hill practically at full speed. She overtook Kinnar as he landed from his jump and needed to correct heavily to stay upright. With a final boost onto the final straight she reached Fender's crossing a millisecond before Kinnar. They both circled the crossing a few times to lose some speed and stopped next to each other. "That was awesome!" Kinnar exhaled.

"I told you to stop showing off! It cost you the race!" Marin explained.

"I know. It was just too good an opportunity not to jump it. I mean, I was flying! Good riding though, for a girl."

"You're impossible Kinnar." Marin said with fake frustration and a smile on her face.

"I mean it though, you really ride well! Why don't you join in the Silver Line run next month?"

"Nah," Marin answered. "I'm not as good as you say you are. Besides, I don't have time to train this year." Marin lied. "Maybe next year though."

"Well ok, but I'd sure like to kick your ass on the track!"

"You couldn't even beat me on this road, let alone the track!" Marin said.

"Guess we'll never know now!

Well, I gotta go. Promised dad I'd help him with the droids. See you Marin!"

"Sure Kinnar, I'll be at the Silver Line run!"

"See you there then!" And He sped off in the direction of Tolls homestead.

Marin put her helmet back on and started down the road to home. Her new home.

 ** _Andean, Haal homestead_**

Jes was working on some of the harvester droids. The harvest was in and it was time to check up on the machinery. Which replacement parts were needed and what needed to be repaired before next season. He didn't mind the work. He loved tinkering with machines. Working on the ships at the temple had always taken his mind of everything else and it still had the same, calming effect here.

"Looks like another burnt out density sensor module." He said to himself and pulled his head out of a maintenance port on a massive CD-2 harvester droid.

He didn't know why, but this time he couldn't stop his mind from going back over the past two years. He couldn't believe it has already been this long since their escape. It had been a time of hard work, but luckily, without major crises. The hard work mostly kept him from thinking about the past, or the future. They were safe for now. That was all that seemed to matter. His skill as a mechanic had proven really valuable in the remote farming community on Andean and he quickly offered to help out with droid and machine maintenance for several farms. This also meant that he regularly had to travel to Mirakeii station to trade for the necessary replacement parts. He had used this as an opportunity to meet up with his old friend Caen two times during the past year. It was good to have someone to talk to. Someone who he had met in a previous life and who shared his turbulent past in the Correllian defence fleet. While the meet-ups where mostly casual, Caen, who was still working for Corelian intelligence, had kept him informed on the general situation in the core. The grand militarization that apparently went along with the transformation of the Republic into the First Galactic empire troubled Jes greatly. But once he was back on Andean it was easy to forget all about those things and get back to the free but busy life as a farmer. He worried about how Marin took it all. She seemed to do fine on the outside. She took pleasure in helping out on the farm and she found a place in the central school where she had made friends with the local youth and she seemed to enjoy swoop riding greatly. But more than once he thought he perceived a more serious undertone in her voice and a distant look on her face. He'd have to talk to her sometime soon to get a better idea about how she's doing and what they were going to do in the future. This wouldn't last forever.

Jes stepped outside and wiped his oily hands on his overall. He looked at the sun and smiled. He loved the weather here. Back on Coruscant the climate had been mostly regulated by the planetary climate control systems. Even the sunlight was controlled by giant orbital mirror arrays. It made for a moderate, pleasant climate. Jes however, preferred it raw and a little unpredictable like here on Andean. The lack of an axial tilt in combination with an elliptical orbit around it's sun provided the central forested belt on Andean with only two seasons. Summer and Rain. While the general climate was quite pleasant, there were days of blazing sun in the summer and there were heavy rains in the wet season. Lots of rain and sun made Andean perfect for farming.

On days like this, he could imagine this being the rest of his life. But a part of him was always watchful. Always aware that they were hiding. Hunted by the new totalitarian regime that had toppled the republic. A regime which nowadays called itself the Empire.

He shook his head free of bad thoughts and just when he wanted to get back inside he heard Art calling.

"Jes, how about we call it a day?" Art must be back from the trade committee meeting already. How long had he been working on that droid?

"We're ahead of schedule with all the maintenance and it's a nice day. Come have a drink with me on the porch!" Art yelled from a distance.

Well, why not. Jes thought to himself, watchfulness could take the afternoon off. And he started off towards the house. "Be right there Art!" He yelled back.

"How are the harvester droids doing?" Art asked after taking a sip form his bottle of Corelian ale.

"Not too bad. The usual wear and tear mostly. A few density sensor modules are malfunctioning on the CD-2's. I'll get new ones next time I'm on Mirakeii." Jes answered.

"How did the trade meeting go? Anything special come up?" Jes asked back.

There were about seventy farms in the colony on Andean. The farmers had joined hands in order to sell their product and get the best prices. They created the trade committee which had a revolving membership of eight farms. Every four years new members would be chosen who would then collectively be responsible for finding the buyers and getting the best prices. Art had been a committee member for the past three years now. He didn't like all the meetings and the lobbying. But he appreciated having a say in what happened to his harvest.

"Well, " Art started, "now that you mention it, there was one thing that I thought was a bit odd. "

"Odd?" Jes asked?

"Yeah, have you ever heard of a company called Insel Bio trading? They're supposed to be based all the way on Coruscant. " Art asked.

"Can't say I have." Jes answered, not having heard the name before.

"Okay," Art continued, "listen to this. Two of the committee members have been approached by people from Insel on Mirakeii station. Now this was unusual by itself. Normally it works the other way around and it's us that have to find the buyers. But that's not the strangest part. They told them that they were interested in buying up a large part of the production of the entire settlement. Possibly, if the quality and supply stayed constant, they could even offer a lasting contract. They didn't make an official offer yet but they gave some indications towards twenty to twenty-five percent less then we sold for last year. The people who were approached, Banes and Tannan, put this on the table this afternoon and they were very enthusiastic. I asked them why we should even consider taking an amount that was that low. I mean, now that the war is over, we expected to get more stability and prices to rise, not to drop, right?" Art was getting more and more agitated while he told the tale. He continued with a raised voice:

"And we never even heard of this Insel company. Then they came up with some crappy story about stability and a contract, and how this would be good for the development of our settlement. I mean, we never had much trouble finding buyers, even in the bad times. I'm positive we can get a way better price than this. And we would need to drop most of our loyal clients who most probably won't come back if this Insel deal blows over."

"It does sound a bit strange that they would be so impressed by such an offer." Jes commented. "Especially Tannan. "

"Exactly! Well, at least some of the others agreed with me. And, the offer apparently included a no-strings-attached sponsorship of the coming Silver Line festival. In return they would get an info stand there in order for people to get to know Insel a bit better. The whole thing still seemed a bit fishy to me but the majority of the committee didn't see any problem with this. Insel promised to get an offer on the table shortly after the festival. The committee agreed to reevaluate the whole deal then. After we've had the chance to get to know each other."

"Sounds reasonable. Can't hurt to hear them out I guess. I could also look into them a bit next time I go to Mirakeii if you'd like?" Jes proposed.

"Hmmm, yeah. Might be a good idea. I'd like to know who we're talking too. Anyway, I'd like to end this day on a more positive note. You up for another ale?" Art asked.

"Heheh" Jes laughed, "sure, why not. It is a very nice day indeed."

A few minutes later Esper came outside.

"There you are Jes. Marin is on the balcony and she seems a bit down. I tried talking to her but she keeps saying she's fine. Maybe you could try to see what's wrong?"

"Sure Esper, I didn't even hear her come in. I'll go check up on her. Keep that ale cold for me will you Art?"

Esper and Marin had become great friends almost from the start. To Esper Marin was kind of a daughter she never had. Marin was mostly just glad she had someone to talk to that was a woman. If she didn't want to talk to Esper now, it must be something about the past. Though Marin and Jes had told everything about what had happened to Art and Esper, Marin still didn't like to talk about who she used to be to anyone but Jes.

The Haal farm had a large balcony terrace on the back of the house where you could sit and see the farm lands all around you. Although it was a real nice place to sit with a gorgeous view they rarely used it. Art and Esper preferred the porch. Marin sometimes went up there when she wanted to think or when she wanted to be alone.

When Jes stepped onto the balcony he saw Marin sitting there with her eyes closed. He thought she was meditating and just when he was about to turn around and head back she said:

"Hi Jes. Don't go. "

"I hate it when you do that." he said with a smile.

"I know, that's why I keep doing it. " she replied with a wink.

"Esper said you looked a bit sad. Something wrong?" Jes asked with a softer voice.

"I don't know Jes." Marin hesitated.

"I mean, I was having a great time riding my swoop with Kinnar today and was feeling great until he asked me if I would enter in the silver line run next month. I told him I couldn't because I'd be too busy to train and I might join next year. "

"But that's not the reason, is it?" Jes asked.

"No, it isn't. " Marin looked down for a moment.

"I love to race! But it wouldn't be fair. My reaction times would be unnaturally low because of my Jedi reflexes. I mean, I wouldn't mind when the others knew and didn't object. But they can't know and this would be like cheating. And it might even tip people off that I'm a Jedi. " Marin sighed.

"I mean, it's not just the race. I'm tired of hiding." she said in an angry tone. "I know it's too dangerous. That I can't be who I was anymore. But I'm feeling more and more confused and angry about it. "

Jes looked a bit sad when he answered:

"Marin, I can't imagine how it must feel. You're at an age where you should be exploring who you are, not hiding it. I wish the situation was different but I cannot make it so.

My old mentor used to say you have to play the cards you are dealt. Even though you know the other players have better hands, you have to play the cards you are dealt. The sooner you accept your hand, the sooner you can focus on living again. " Jes sighed.

"Look, I've seen you worry about this for a while now. And I know I cannot train you as a Jedi. But I could do something else. It might help you deal with this a bit better. Are you willing to hear me out? "

"Sure, tell me." Marin said with a sigh.

"We're going to take a trip. And I'm going to train you in the martial arts of the Echani. You ever hear of them?"

"We learnt about them in galactic history; ancient warrior people right? Their fighting styles are still taught all over the galaxy. You're going to teach me how to fight?" Marin asked.

"A crude and short description, but yes. Echani culture held the belief that to know one fully, you must fight them. Echani fighting was not only self-defense, but a form of self-expression, a means of communication similar to art. Combat was part of pretty much everything they did. And you're right, their fighting techniques are still being taught to special forces all over the galaxy. They teach you the stances and the moves. I'll also teach you the philosophy and the way they thought. I'll teach you to fight and to dance, through combat.


	9. Learn to dance

**Andean, Haal homestead**

Jes was strapping his backpack on the back of his swoop bike when Marin came running out the front door, backpack in one hand and her jacket in the other.

"Got everything?" Jes asked.

"Yes, I mean, I think so. How am I supposed to know? I never went hiking before! I mean, we went on some field trips but never anything like this!" She hurried to her swoop bike and started strapping.

"Don't worry, " Jes said with a smile on his face. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

At that moment Esper came through the front door which Marin let open. "Here, Marin, take this!" Handing her a small package filled with food. "A little something to enjoy in the evenings."

"Thanks Esper!" Marin said. And she tucked it in her backpack.

Jes gave Esper a slightly annoyed look but kept smiling.

"I know, I know, " Esper said "Surivaling and all... But Marin could really use it. She's skinny as it is. Besides, you should enjoy your time off. You sure deserve it."

"We will. I appreciate it Esper, really do. Well, time to go. you ready?" Jes asked.

Marin fastened a final strap and put on her helmet. "Yep, ready!"

Art came around the corner. "Ah, you're still here. Good. I wanted to wish you a great time out there! It's beautiful out there in the woods this time of year. I remember when I went hiking there with my old man almost every year. We would go hunting for food and sleeping in the woods and..."

"Art! They were just about leave. They don't want to hear your back-in-the-day tales right now and I sure as hell don't need to hear them for the forty-second time! " Esper spit out at Art, in that tone that's often used by couples who've been together for a long time.

"Right, right. Why don't you take my hunting rifle! You could shoot a dainl from a kilometer away!" Art said proud.

"You couldn't shoot it if it was standing on the porch, Art. And I'm sure Jes has though of everything they need." Esper commented.

"Thanks Art, but Esper's right. I think we have everything right here." Jes said.

"Alright, alright." Art said. "And I do have to admit you're a better shot then I am Esper, but you don't need to remind me all the time, alright dear? Now, you two have a great time out there and take care!"

"Will do Art!" Marin said joyfully, anxious to go.

"And watch Jes for us, will ya? He's not as young as he thinks!" Esper said jokingly.

Marin winked.

"Ha-ha. Thanks Esper. " Jes said. "Now, time to go. I want to cross the canyon before we make camp tonight. " And with a humm his swoop bike came to life. Marin followed and started hers. "See you in a few weeks! Jes said and waved to Art and Esper before he set off. Marin was right behind him.

The first part of their journey would take them past the farmlands and through the plains beyond. The plains would eventually make way for a forest. There were still crude roads through that part of the forest which they could follow on their swoop bikes until they hit Lervig's canyon. Named after an old pre-space age Corellian explorer, Lervig's canyon was a large, ancient river bed. It was about a mile deep and a three miles wide. Probably cut out by a glacier in times long gone, the slopes of the canyon weren't very steep. Jes estimated they could hike down and make camp at the bottom of the canyon before it got dark.

 **Andean, Lervig's canyon**

They reached the canyon well into afternoon. Jes stopped his swoop and Marin circled around him once to slow down and stopped next to him. The road had ended a while ago but the trees had been far enough apart for them to keep going on their swoops. With the sun already halfway down, they now overlooked Lervig's canyon. The forest continued on down the slopes of the canyon over the ancient glacial bedding. The forest got thicker on the other side.

"Wow, it sure is beautiful here. " Marin commented, taking in the view.

"It sure is. " Jes replied, taking a moment to enjoy the vista. "Okay, let's cover up the swoops. We'll hike down into the canyon and make camp there. If everything goes smooth we'll have some time to relax and a chance at a good night sleep. We'll start training tomorrow. "

A few hours later they were sitting at their campfire in a small clearing at the bottom of the canyon. They had put up their tents and Jes had caught some of the small birdlike creatures which seemed to be abundant on this part of the forest. Together with the provisions they brought it should present them with enough food for days.

Marin had just finished some of Espers cake as a dessert. She really didn't know what to expect of all this. But she saw Jes was in his element. School was out for a while so if anything, the complete lack of other options made this a nice distraction from it all. And she might learn something too. She missed the hard physical training at the academy. Yet she was a bit afraid that this would be more like a military style training and that Jes would be acting like an angry drill sergeant. But it had been a pleasant hike so far. So she would just have to wait and see.

The forest was stunning this time of year. Around her she saw all shades of green and it was filled with wildlife. As far as they knew there were no large predators in this forest and hardly any poisonous bugs. She hated bugs.

"So, " Jes started, "not so bad here huh?"

"No, it's actually quite nice here. I like being out in nature. We didn't do this very often when I was at the temple. I almost forgot what it's like."

"It is nice here. The next few days we'll be training here at the bottom of the canyon. After that, we'll hike up the other slope and move further into the forest on the other side. We'll gradually circle back and if all goes well we'll be back at our swoops by the end of next week. That should give me time to train you in the basics of Echani fighting while still leaving some room to relax now and then. "

"Sounds great! I can't wait for the exercise. "

"Good. We'll start with stances tomorrow and maybe the basics of the kanti."

"Stances?" Marin asked.

"Yes. As I said earlier, for the Echani, combat was in every aspect of their lives. They were warriors, but they also used combat as a form of communication and expression. So everyone should be able to fight everyone. But they were not all alike. Like us, the Echani had young and old people, short and tall etc. And to fight someone effectively you would need the right technique, the right style. There were hundreds of different Echani fighting styles and thousands different sub-styles. Most of them have been lost in time but we still know some of them. Some styles were good for large, male warriors. While others were more fit for smaller, younger Echani. Each style would focus on the strong points of the fighter and the advantages that could be created. Of course the correct style was not only determined by the fighter. The opponent was also important. Was he larger, smaller, faster or slower then you. Did he wear armor or was he armed? So, many different styles. And every style has a set of standard stances. How you take position every time you face your opponent determines your options. There are offensive stances and defensive stances. Which is the right one is again determined by the fighter, the opponent, and other situational aspects, like the environment. Learning the stances is the base of Echani fighting. If you do not master the stances, you will fail at every other aspect. So, we'll start with some of the stances."

"Allright, I think I get it. But will we be focusing on one style or will there be more?" Marin asked.

"Focusing will give you a better chance to learn something. So we'll be working on the style called _valianna_. It is perfect for smaller, more agile fighters and focuses on swiftness and precision. It also assumes that your opponent is bigger and slower then you. This style should suit you fine and I'm a great fit for the opponent." Jes explained.

"How come you know so much about the Echani? Did they teach you all this in NSOC training?"' Marin asked.

"Not all of this," Jes answered. "but I chose hand to hand combat as a specialization. I wanted to become an instructor. When I dove deeper into the theories behind the skills I became more and more obsessed with the Echani and how they lived. During one of my leaves I went to look for people who knew more about the philosophy and the way the Echani used to live. I found an old scholar who had studied them his whole life. We actually became friends and I started to study under him in my free time. "

"Was he also a good fighter? Or did he just focus on the theory?" Marin asked.

Jes put on a small smile while he looked into the distance. "In all the time I knew him. We sparred many, many times. I never beat him. Not even once. And he was older then I'm now while I was a young, fully trained special forces operative. Man, could he fight. But I didn't just learn how to fight. The most important thing I learned is the mental control you can achieve through focus. The training and the fighting helped me deal with a lot of the stress I had from all the missions. This helped me to learn about myself. I hope this aspect can help you as well. "

"Thanks Jes, I hope so too."

The following morning Jes started explaining the basics stances of the Valianna style.

"Now, place your right foot just a bit backwards and your right hand a bit higher. Exactly. This is the basic defensive stance called Kaii. It allows for a lot of freedom to dodge incoming blows. Remember, this style focuses on swiftness and agility and assumes that you are facing a stronger opponent. So blocking is not as important as dodging. Let me show you how you dodge some basic attacks." Jes said as he took position facing Marin. "Now, when I move in with a right high kick you will swiftly roll to the left by bending your left leg and letting yourself roll to the ground like this.

Jes rolled swiftly to the side and ended up in the same stance.

"This will open up my entire right side to a counter attack if you're quick enough. Now you try it." And he moved back to his original position,

Jes performed a slow motion version of a right high kick while Marin swiftly rolled to the left and immediately took up the Kaii stance again. "Like this?" She was a quick learner…

"Excelent, see how you could easily hit me in my right side from this position before I regain my balance after that high kick? Now, I see that you took the Kaii stance after that roll. That's good, but Valianna actually has a lot of subtly different stances, just for counters. Here, let me show you... "

The rest of the day they practiced dozens of stances for all kinds of situations. They also got around to some of the first basic attacks. When they finished with practicing a low kick attack from one of the basic offensive stances, Jes called a time-out.

"Ok, that's enough for today."

"Ok, but I don't feel tired yet!" Marin was having fun. She discovered that she actually missed the intensive, physical training they had at the academy.

"The sun is already on its way down and we still need to find dinner and make a fire. Good that you're enjoying it Marin, we're only getting started. And I think that you might be pretty sore when you wake up tomorrow. But we'll see."

"If you say so. It's not as hard as I imagined it would be. " Marin said.

"It will get harder. Now, if you'll get a fire started I'll go see if I can find us something to eat to go with the bread Esper baked. "

At the campfire that night Marin was wondering about something.

"Jes, can I ask you a question? A personal one I mean." She asked.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Did you ever have a family, like a wife or kids?"

"No," Jes answered. "Guess my relationships never lasted long enough. I was hardly ever home when I was in the CDF. It just never worked out, I always picked my job over my personal life. Then, after I ran... Well, my life really wasn't suited for any kind of relationship. How about you? I understand Jedi take children at a young age to train at the academy. Did you ever miss having a real family?"

"I didn't used to. I guess I never knew what I missed. The academy was all I knew. I don't know if I miss having a family, but I like living with you, Art and Esper."

"Yeah, we're really lucky with them. Good people seem hard to find sometimes."

They both sat in silence for a while, staring at the fire until Jes said: "Well, Let's call it day. Tomorrow will be busy. We'll start with learning about the Kanta."

"Kanta, What's that?" Marin asked curiously.

"Hah, I'll explain tomorrow. Sleep well Marin." And Jes jeaded into his tent.

The next day they were up early and started training right after breakfast.

"A fight can be quite similar to a discussion." Jes started to explain while faced each other on a small clearing in the forest on the canyon floor.

"In a discussion you have arguments and counter-arguments, just like in combat. In this comparison a kanta is more like a speech. There is no opponent, but everything you do must be perfect. Your body language, your intonation, your carefully chosen words. It all must come together. A kanta is a chained series of moves and combinations, executed perfectly. They're used to train the different styles and stances, but when you're experienced enough they can also have a meditative effect. Your mind will be focused, and everything you do will be muscle memory. It will be the easiest if you picture your opponent standing right in front of you. The first Kanta in the Valianna style is the Valia'kei. It starts in the Kaii stance and consists mostly of moves we practives earlier. I will start slowly and tell you everything I do. Please follow my lead Marin. Kaii, dodge left, punch, spin-dodge..."

Marin tried to copy Jes' moves but this was harder then she imagined. There were a lot of moves to remember and every time Marin made a mistake Jes made her start over again.

"Again," Jes said after Marin's seventh try. "Start with Kaii."

"But I was almost there, I almost had it this time!"

"You did. Now show me you can get it completely right."

Marin sighed, closed her eyes for a second and assumed the basic defensive position. Alright, she thought. Again.

And this time she did it.

"Excelent! " Jes said. "Well done. Now we will focus on getting each step of the Valia'kei perfect. "

"Which steps weren't perfect?" Marin asked annoyed.

"None of them were. "

"But wasn't this good enough to fight?" Marin asked.

"You have to understand, All Echani styles focus on perfect control of your body. Valliana, being based more on finesse then strength, even more so. You will learn to hit your opponent in places which will have the most impact. Making those hits in the heat of the fight requires absolute control of your body. Perfecting the Kanta's will help you achieve that."

"Alright, but you'll have to show me what to correct. Because I thought it was pretty good already!" Marin said.

"Of course. I'll show you. Come on, Kaii!"

Marin and Jes simultaneously took the basic defensive stance.

"Now look at your right leg. You need to turn your foot just a bit more towards me and shove it a little backward... "

They spent the next few hours perfecting the first Kanta and starting on the next. Even though Marin had hoped they would be fighting for real about now she was starting to appreciate the exercises. Suddenly Jes said: "Ok, enough Kanta today. As a final exercise for today we will spar. Semi-contact and you're only allowed to use moves from the Valia'kei."

"Alright, I'm ready!" Marin said enthusiastically. And they started by standing across from each other. "Ok, show me what you've got!" Jes taunted.

As Marin tried to attack Jes she found that he was a lot quicker then he looked. He easily dodged every kick and punch Marin threw at him.

"Mind your stance Marin, your left side was completely open after that kick. Next time I see it I will strike." Jes said as he deftly dodged another kick.

"You're doing great Marin. Excellent execution. "

"If I'm..." *kick* *roll* "..doing so great,"... *dodge low*, *jab*... "then why am I ..." *step backwards* *kick*..."not hitting you!" *kick!*kick!*

The last kick left her left side wide open again and Jes effortlessly ducked and punched her in the side. Marin was caught of balance and fell, barely able to catch herself with her left arm. "Oof!"

"Ok, let's stop here. Don't get distracted during a fight. If you're opponent wants to chat, let him. You say focused. Only listen to what his body says. Now get up and let's do that last attack again, but slowly. Let me show you what you did wrong there. "


	10. Witch hunter

**Nar Shaddaa** **, Residential district 533**

"Alpha team in position." A voice whispered over the comm as Major Corran Aries looked at the video feeds displayed on the hastily setup screens in his makeshift tactical control room.

"Sniper alpha-two in position. No visual on target." Another voice heavy with static said over the comm.

Aries had a bad feeling about this. The intel on this particular Jedi had been vague and incomplete. He had been tracking him for weeks now. Following up on weak leads, researching bad quality surveillance footage. Everything he saw pointed out that this fugitive was highly alert, nervous and continuously on the move. He was young. Records showed he had just been promoted to knight at the start of the clone wars and he'd been away on a mission without clones for backup during order 66. He'd probably received Obi Wan's warning signal at some point and had been on the run ever since.

Aries would have liked more time to investigate his behavior and find patterns in his movement. But information from an unverified source suggested that the target had become paranoid and was about to jump planet again. Aries had no positive confirmation on his last known location but decided to risk it. If the target managed to flee again it might be months before he could pick up another trace. So he ordered a simultaneous breach on three possible target locations early in the morning. This apartment was the most likely one where the target was staying so he set up his mobile control center close to the building. Multiple displays where showing feeds from all three locations.

"Bravo team, in position." cracked another voice from the comm system.

"Echo team, in position!" A female voice said over the comm. That was it. He keyed the comm and said "All teams, stand by." Aries took one last look at all of the monitors and the sensor data rolling over the screens. There goes nothing. He thought and keyed the comm again.

"All teams, breach! breach! breach!"

Immediately sounds from the comm systems started filling the room as the helmet feeds showed breach charges being detonated and teams moving into rooms.

"Bravo team here. Location two clear. three civi's subdued. Unarmed. Taking them in for questioning. Negative on target."

"Echo team here. location three clear. Negative on target."

It was silent for a few seconds. Aries was waiting for the last team to check in.

"Alpha team here. Location one clear. Negative on target. Place is a mess though. Might be worth to check it out. "

"Roger that Alpha. Good work teams." Aries said and put down his comm device.

"Blast!" he said out loud and threw down his comm device.

It was as he feared. They were too late. Walking through the apartment designated _Lima 1_ he could see that someone had probably left in a hurry some time ago. He'd left no clues behind except a few Coruscant credit chits which indicated he's might have been there not too long ago. Locations two and three were probably false leads. He doubted the civilians knew anything useful. They've probably never seen a Jedi in their entire lives. Without further leads there was no way to find him now. Nar Shadaa had an extremely busy spaceport and there was so much black market trading going on that most of the traffic wasn't officially listed. No, he was most probably long gone by now.

Major Corran Aries was a young and ambitious officer who worked for Republic Intelligence in the clone wars when the Empire took over. The agency was transformed into the Imperial Naval Intellegence Agency. The agency's leadership was replaced and it's priorities shifted towards locating anti-Imperial dissidents and clone war fugitives. Lieutenant Aries had been given the task to gather intel on fugitive Jedi who had escaped Order 66. "Witch hunter", his colleagues had mockingly called him. But in the last two years he had played a vital role in the identification and location of two Jedi which have now been successfully neutralized. These successes earned him a promotion to major. His rank together with his special assignment had given him access to some special resources in the newly formed Imperial Navy, like calling in strike teams for missions like this one.

It looked like he was not going to be successful this time around though. He would have to wait for new leads and intel to pick up his trail again. It didn't matter, he fully realized this job took patience. And Major Corran Aries was a patient man.

He sighed and took one last look around the room.

"Scan and bag everything and send it to the trace analysis lab. "

"Yes sir. " One of the technical assistants replied.

Time to pack up and report to Coruscant. All intelligence missions concerning Jedi always reported directly to Coruscant. They weren't going to like this one.

"Captain. " He said to a uniformed man standing right outside the room. "Have the Elaris ready for departure in thirty minutes. Set a course for Coruscant.

"Yes sir." The captain said and he marched off.


	11. A different kind of Jedi

**Andean, Lervig's canyon**

Jes and Marin had been training for almost two weeks now. Jes knew their time was limited and had hoped he could teach Marin two Kanta's of the Valianna style. However, Marin had mastered them far quicker than Jes had anticipated and he ended up teaching her four or the most common Kanta's instead of two.

They had trained the Kanta's, used them in sparring sessions and trained them some more. Jes explained that you practiced the Kanta's to make the body remember. You should never have to think where to put your left foot or how to block that kick. Your body would remember. One way he trained this was to throw small objects at Marin during Kanta training. Marin would have to dodge and name the object before it hit the ground without making a single mistake in performing the Kanta. This way your mind had to focus on the object, while the body performed the Kanta.

One time, when Marin had proven that she could perform the Valia'kei perfectly, even with her eyes closed, they'd moved into a dense part of the forest. The trees were only about thirty centimeters apart and Jes had asked her to perform Valia'kei here. Without hitting a tree. It took another frustrating ten times before Marin gracefully performed the entire chain of moves without touching a trunk. Jes always found ways to increase the difficulty so Marin's precision and coordination got better and better. Jes had also taught her how to perform Kant'ei, combined Kanta. Where you face your partner like in a sparring session, but instead of hitting each other you both combine moves from a Kanta without hitting each other. One fighter has to respond to the moves of another fighter. The result can only be described as an Echani dance. Though the dances were challenging and fun, Marin loved the sparring sessions the most. She got better at them as she practiced more and more. Seeing Jes starting to sweat after a long round, she started to realize how far she'd come from the beginning of their trip. She loved it. She hadn't realized how much she missed training and being tested like this.

"Marin, I know I've been pushing you harder and harder for the past twelve days. I would only do that if I think you could do it. Whether it's your bond with the Force or you experience in your previous trainings I do not know, but you're picking this up at an almost unnatural pace. Your fighting skill and your ability to learn have exceeded far beyond my expectations. We'll end this part of the training with one last sparring session. I believe you're ready. I want you to go all out, full-contact. Use everything you've learned to your best judgement and give all you have in order to beat me. You understand?"

"I do, " Marin hesitated. "but, are you sure about this?" Marin asked, doubting if full-contact was such a good idea.

"I am. Learning to fight is not without risks. Only when you give everything you have you can fully experience how good you really are. Only with the risk of hitting someone and getting hit yourself you will see what you can really do. "

"Ok, but I mean, what if I injure you. " Marin asked.

"I'll raise my hands above my head when I yield. So can you. We stop immediately at that sign. I'll let you get ready. We begin in ten minutes. "

"Alright, I'll be ready."

They circled each other slowly. Carefully watching each other to see who would strike first. Both their expressions where cool, emotionless. They had sparred with each other often and long enough to earn each other's respect in combat. Marin was nervous though. She hoped it didn't show. She knew she had to take the advantage of striking first and not give him a change to take the offensive. _Well_ , she thought, _it's now or never_. And she struck.

Her kick was right on target and would have hit Jes on his right side. but Jes was quick. Quicker even then he had shown in previous practices. Jes didn't counter yet, she had to use this as an advantage and layed a combo of moves on him from one of the Kanta's she'd learned.

*low kick*spin*dodge*punch*punch*roll*jump*spin kick*low kick*

Jes managed to dodge all of her attacks but Marin thought she saw the hint of strain on his face during the last few dodges. Then Jes attacked. Marin saw it coming but the swiftness of the attacks took her by surprise. She had to struggle to keep her balance during her dodges and blocks but managed come out of it unharmed.

It must have looked spectacular to onlookers had there been any. Two fighters moving around each other in a blur, striking and countering. Sometimes using the environment to their advantage. Dodging behind trees, somersaulting from large trunks to gain the upper hand and strike from the flank, constantly moving. A fight that deserved a soundtrack. But it was quiet in the forest. Apart from the breathing and the moans from the fighters as they performed their dangerous dance.

Marin noticed she was getting tired. Her movements were getting sloppy and her muscles started to show light cramps during the more heavy attacks. But she also noticed it in her opponent. Jes was sweating and breathing heavily. Then, when he struck with a combo of heavy kicks she noticed a mistake. His lower left flank was open. She dodged his last high kick and deftly spun around, coming back at him with a sweeping low kick. Jes noticed his mistake and barely managed to block the incoming attack. It left him off-balance and Marin knew she had to take this opportunity and finish it now. She directly followed with a volley of attacks which should have brought Jes down but Jes responded with a series of blocks and dodges which Marin thought were impossible to pull off from that position. Marin kept going. Seeing that Jes was in trouble she turned up her attacks, using every bit of strength she had left in her.

*kick*jump*kick*dodge*flip*low kick*

The last few kicks had hit him. But he was still standing. When he executed a series of kicks in a counter attack she saw the opening again. Marin gave it all, her mind was a blur, time seemed to slow down and everything fell in place; The moves, the jumps, the kicks and the punches. Her feet automatically seemed to land in the right positions. Jes tried to counter with everything he had. And then, it seemed that Jes was moving slowly. Everything seemed to be moving slowly. It was clear to Marin. She saw it. She saw the fight, the dance. She spun backwards, easily dodging an incoming kick, and took Jes off his feet with a low kick to his standing leg. Before he hit the ground she landed a punch on his right shoulder.

When Marin looked up she saw Jes lying ten meters away, face to the ground.

"Oh no! What did I... I didn't mean to...Jes!" And she ran over.

Jes struggled to lift his torso of the ground and sat on his knees. He saw Marin approaching and started to smile. He was breathing heavily and his shoulder hurt like hell.

"Jes! I'm so sorry I didn't mean to use.."

"It's alright Marin. Aahrrg." Jes moaned as he grabbed his left shoulder.

"But I used the Force, and I hit you, and you told me not to but I did it anyway, and I don't know why, I.."

"Calm down Marin. It's OK, really. Believe it or not, this actually went better than I could have dreamed." And he sat down against the nearest tree.

"I told you not to use the Force because I believed that you wouldn't learn the essence of fighting Echani style. You would have primarily trusted your strength in the Force which would have limited your ability to learn Vaillana. I've seen the same in some of my recruits who were already experts in other fighting styles before I started to teach them. I hoped that as you learned to fight like the Echani, you would get better and better. And in crisis situations, which I tried to simulate with the full-contact match, I hoped that your fighting would feel so natural that your other strengths would automatically blend in to assist you. That is where I believe your strength lies in fighting, Marin. Letting the Force guide you and assist you. And I think that's what happened. Using the Force like this was actually the biggest compliment you could have given me."

"But I hit you, and you flew all the way over here! Are you alright?" Marin asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I've endured worse in my days. But I have to admit, that was one hell of a hit." Jes said, wincing while he rubbed his shoulder.

"Your fighting skills have surpassed my wildest expectations. Most soldiers I've trained didn't get this far in three months. The force really must be with you."

"Thanks, I guess." Marin said shyly not quite sure how to respond.

"Come on, enough for today. Let's get a fire going. I expected today might be tough, so I saved up enough food for tonight. "

"So, what are we going to do tomorrow?" Marin asked when they'd finished eating.

"No more fighting. Easy as you learn, it's also important for your body and mind to process what you've learned." Jes said.

"Or you're just afraid I'll beat you again!" Marin said playfully.

"Watch it young lady. I have a lot of tricks left to show you. We'll fight again!" Jes said with a smile. "No, I have a surprise for you. But it's still a day hiking away. So we'll leave tomorrow."

"What's the surprise?" Marin asked,

"Wouldn't be a surprise if I told you, now would it." Jes said with a smile.

"No, I didn't tell you about this because I wasn't sure how you'd react and I didn't want to distract you during training. I've found something in the forests beyond that might interest you."

"Well, what is it? Tell me!"

"Ok, ok. You remember when we first came here, that we told the entire story to Art and Esper and they believed us without question? Well, in later conversations I had with Art I found out that there had been Jedi here before. At least one. "

"Really? Did they meet them?" Marin asked.

"No, they didn't. It was a long time ago when Art's father still owned the farm. Art remembered his father telling him about a visitor who belonged to the Jedi Order. Some kind of scholar, he remembered. He came here looking for something. But he also came here when the colony was just starting up and there were a lot of problems. The Jedi helped them out with some of the problems. Art wasn't sure exactly what he had helped with. He had been too young to understand it all but the colonists were really happy he had helped. He remembered his father speaking all kinds of good words about the visitor. And his father apparently was a man of few words." Jes explained.

"Wow, did he find what he was looking for?" Marin asked.

"Well, that's what I asked Art as well. But he didn't know. His father had never spoken about that. He probably hadn't known either. So I looked deeper into it and casually questioned some of the older colonists if they knew anything about this. I thought I had hit a dead end when Tannan pointed me to Jerec Woste. Do you know Jerec?"

"The old man from over at the lake? Never really met him."

"Yes, him. He's always been a bit of a loner but people say that no one knows the forests here better then ol' Jerec. Apparently, when he was young, he accompanied the Jedi as a guide through the forests a few times. However, Jerec is about eighty five years old now and doesn't remember everything clearly. He couldn't even tell me the name of the Jedi. Just that he was a Twi-lek. But he did remember where he had taken him. When I showed him a map of the area he pointed at a particular piece of forest. That's where the last expedition had ended. He didn't know what it was he'd found but the Jedi had seemed grateful for the tour. She'd thanked him and had paid Jerec enough to pay off most of his debts. Then he'd told him he could go home. Jerec figured he must have found what he was looking for. Now I don't know what it is he found or if he found anything at all. But I thought you might be interested in finding out, as a Jedi scolar. "

"Wow Jes, why didn't you tell me about this? " Marin asked surprised.

"Well, I wasn't sure I'd find something for a long time and I kinda wanted it be a surprise. I would have told you sooner if I'd hid a dead end. But, here we are now. I estimate we're about a day hiking from the place Jerec took her. I figured we would end this trip by finding out. What do you think?"

"Wow, Yes! Of course I want to find out!" Marin said excitedly.

"Good. Let's get a good night of sleep then. Today has been tiring day and tomorrow is going to quite a hike. "

The next day they hiked. Jes had taken some pain killers for his shoulder but was doing better than he expected.

Most of their training days had been in the forested grounds inside the canyon with one or two days of uphill training against the canyon wall. Today they started their day by hiking out of the canyon and into the forests beyond. Marin had been ready and packed before breakfast. She couldn't wait to find out what the Jedi had come here for.

At the start of the afternoon they reached a ridge of hills.

"The place Jerec mentioned should be somewhere over those hills, between those two hilltops. " Jes said.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Marin responded.

It was a tough hike to the top of the ridge. The slopes had been steeper than they had seemed from a distance and they were covered with a dense forest. They reached the top at the end of the afternoon. The top of the hills was mostly clear of trees, probably because of the storms in the rain season.

"There!" Marin said, pointing at a clearing in the valley behind the hills. "Looks like some small buildings there, or what's left of them."

"Well, what do you know… " Jes said with mild surprise. "Good chance that's what the Jedi was looking for."

"Come on, let's go Jes!" Marin said, already starting to move on.

"Marin, wait. We don't know what's down there, and it's already getting dark. If we make camp here now and move in the morning we'll have plenty of daylight to get there and explore. If we go now, we might have a hard time getting down the hills and end up being down there in the dark, unable to navigate and find our way to those buildings."

Marin, eager to explore the ruins, was frustrated because they were so close. But she also knew Jes was right. Navigating the forest in the dark was near impossible. And if the climb down from the hills was as challenging as the way up they would be in trouble for sure.

"Alright, " Marin said with a sigh. "I'll get a fire going."

Marin was standing in the clearing at the top of the hill. Except their camp was not there, and there was smoke rising from somewhere in the distance. She didn't see Jes anywhere. She tried calling him:

"Jes? Where are you? Jes?"

There was no response She heard only the echo of her voice.

Then she noticed the shadows where wrong. The sky was dark and the bright moon was in front of her but the trees around the clearing cast their shadows outward. All of them. As if there was a bright light in the center of the clearing. But there wasn't. There was just Marin.

Then she heard a voice.

"Marin?"

It didn't sound like Jes. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere within the clearing, but there was nothing there. Then she closed her eyes. And saw...

"Alive, you are then. Good news, this is."

 _It couldn't be..._

"Master Yoda?" Marin replied doubtfully, looking at the small green creature who was now standing in the center of... Marin realized the clearing was gone. There was just Yoda.

"Yes, young Padawan. Powerful with the force, this place is. Strong, the light side is here."

"You survived! Are, where are you?" Marin asked.

"Far away, I am. But a connection through the Force, we made."

"Am I, am I dreaming then?" Marin asked.

"Hmm. Something like that. Connected through the Force we are. Long, this will not last. "

"Can I come to you? You could continue my training!"

"No. Failed, we have. Blind, we have been. Powerful, the dark side has become. Right under our noses." Yoda paused for a second, looking into the distance, and continued.

"No." He repeated. "In exile, I must remain for now. But, a master, you seem to have found already, not?"

"Who, Jes? He's no Jedi. He knows nothing about the force!"

"A Jedi, he may be not. But much to teach you he has. Changed, times have. Different times for a different kind of Jedi perhaps, hmm?"

Yoda sighed. He continued in a heavier tone. "Hunted, we are now. Essential, survival is. Teach you, he can. The essence of being a Jedi, learned you have. All your life, a Jedi, you have been. "

"But how will I learn to use the Force? How will I become more powerful?" Marin asked, sounding lost.

"Watch out, Marin. Dangerous, those thoughts can be. To a dark path they may lead. Never the goal, power is. Always a mean. Why need power? Ask yourself, you have to. When found, the answer you have, within yourself you should look. Within, the force is, always. A lot you have learned already. Learn to look within, and find power, you will."

"Isn't there more you could teach me Master Yoda?" Marin asked desperately.

"More to teach, there always is. But time, we have not I'm afraid." Yoda paused.

"Warn you, I will. A trial awaits you, I see. When comes, the time, look inside. Not just inside ruins." Yoda pointed what appeared to be a small wooden walking stick at Marin.

"But inside… you."

"Master Yoda, one thing. Jes told me how you two met. "

"Ah, yes. Interesting night, that was." He said with in a light-hearted voice.

"Did you know? I mean, that all this was going to happen?" Marin asked curiously.

"No." Yoda closed his eyes and shook his head. "Sometimes, a glimpse of what might happen, the force may show you. Recognize him from one of my visions, I did. Help someone, someday he would. This I had seen. So help him, that night, I did. More, I did not know." Yoda paused, he seemed to concentrate.

"Hmmm. Weaker, our connection grows. Gone, it will soon be. Marin, warn you I must. Always be aware. Powerful and bold, the dark side has become. Tempt you it will, at some point. Careful, you-must-be."

"But how will I know what to do Master Yoda?" Marin asked.

"Within, Marin. _Within_ ….. "

Yoda's voice sounded hollow and far away. " _May the force be with you, Marin_."

"Master Yoda? Master Yoda!"

Suddenly everything went white and she opened her eyes.

Jes was already up and was crouched next to her. "Are you alright Marin? You looked pale and were sweating."

Marin looked around. It was morning already. Jes was here and the camp was back where it was supposed to be. _But it had felt so real!_

"I think I had a vision, or something." She replied.

"A vision? Like the one you had when we were going to the temple?"

"Yeah, and no. I, I... It was master Yoda, he spoke to me." Marin said doubtfully.

Jes realized that this wasn't the time to start questioning her Jedi experiences and tried to lighten the mood:

"Master Yoda eh? I told you he was tough. Was he alright?"

"I think so, but he said he lived in exile. That I couldn't go there. Something with having failed the Order. He said it was this place Jes! This place helped us connect through the force. The force must be unusually strong here."

"Well, maybe it has something to do with the ruins in the valley below. Still want to find out what's down there?"

"More than ever!" Marin replied.

"Good, then you can tell me about the rest when we're underway. Let's get packing."

And after breakfast they started their hike down the hill, toward the ruins they had seen from the ridge. Underway, Marin told Jes about the vision she had. She left out a few details like the part about Yoda telling her that she'd found a master. She wasn't sure about that yet.

The climb down this side of the ridge turned out to be a lot easier than the climb up. They arrived at the buildings later that morning. They looked less impressive up close then from the ridge. In a small clearing there were three small stone buildings which looked ancient, all overgrown with the local flora. The light grey stone which the buildings where made of didn't look like anything Jes had seen on Andean. Two of the buildings had completely collapsed and were no more than a few crumbled walls with a pile of overgrown rubble inside. One building in the center however, looked surprisingly intact. Although it too was mostly overgrown with plants and roots, there was a narrow opening in the center of one of the walls that looked like it must have been a door once.

"Does this mean anything to you?" Jes asked Marin while they were standing in front of the intact building.

"Nope, never seen anything like it. Looks old though. And it's hard to make out any specific features with the plants all over it."

"Yeah, I see what you mean. Let's take a look inside."

As Marin squeezed through the narrow opening she saw there was actually light inside. A few narrow openings in the ceiling let in some sunlight which illuminated certain features in the small room. The room was empty except for a large, grey oblong table in the center and a mossy statue behind it.

"Looks like a tomb." Jes said suddenly.

Marin suddenly realized that what she had seen as a table was actually a sarcophagus. As she looked closer she saw that there was an inscription on the lid. Unfortunately most of it was unreadable. She could only make out what looked like part of a name.

"Bastillla.."

"Does that name tell you anything?" Jes asked.

"No, never heard of anyone called like that." Marin answered.

"Looks like the humid climate here has worn it down. Must be really old then." Jes said, looking at the lid.

"Yeah, I cannot make out anything else." Marin confirmed, and walked around to check out the statue. it was covered in moss and hanging plants. When she tried to clean it up a bit she noticed that the statue depicted the shape of a woman.

"Look Jes, whoever this was, it was a woman! "

She cleaned up the statue some more and noticed it was holding something in her hands. It was a long cylinder. When she brushed off some of the moss covering the cylinder she was surprised to find metal underneath. Jes came over and aimed his light on what Marin was cleaning. It gleamed a little.

"What's that Marin?"

"I don't know, I... It cannot be..."

"What did you find?" Jes asked curiously.

"It's a lightsaber. The statue is holding a real lightsaber, Jes!"

"Really? I've never seen one that long." Jes said, amazed at the discovery. It was far more then he anticipated.

"It must be a dual bladed saber. They're very rare these days, but certain fighting styles focus on dual bladed lightsabers." Marin explained.

"You think she was a Jedi?" Jes asked.

"I think so. Maybe even from way back in republic history. Too bad we can't make out any of the inscriptions. "

Marin tried to pull the lightsaber from the statue. it came loose quite easily. She cleaned off most of the moss and dust and examined it closely.

"It's in surprisingly good shape for how old it must be."

"I mean, all the electronics are broken but the casing is still intact and," With a little effort she tried to open the crystal compartment. With a bit of creaking the cover came off.

"Look, the kyber crystal is still there! Bright yellow, and larger than I expected too! The blades on this saber must have shone a beautiful golden light once."

Marin put the hilt back together and carefully placed it back in the statue.

"Jes?" Marin asked. "I can feel the Force is strong in this place. If you don't mind I'd like to meditate here. See if it might show me something. "

"Sure, I'll start making camp outside. I scouted the area on our way here and the valley seems safe enough. We've earned some rest I'd say. I'll be nearby, call me if you need me." Jes said.

"Will do! And, Jes?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for this."

Jes smiled slightly. "You're welcome Marin."

Marin sat down in front of the sarcophagus. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She could hear the birds outside. And the trickle of a small creek just behind the buildings. She felt the insects on the ground, and the small furry animals they'd seen in the treetops on their way here. She felt life flowing through the forest. And here, she felt serene. Like there was a warm blanket over her and there was nothing to fear here.

Suddenly, images started flashing in her mind. She saw a large city filled with tall buildings and busy with traffic which reminded her of Coruscant. She saw a round chamber where robed figures sat in a circle. She saw a young twi-lek practicing lightsaber techniques. She saw other, exotic landscapes; forests, frozen wastelands and deserts stretching as far as she could see. But she also saw large space battles. She didn't recognize any of the ships. Maybe it was from a long time ago. The imaged changed before she could make out any details. Some images where blurry, or flashed by to quickly to make anything out. Suddenly, she stood in a dark room filled with monitors. At the other end of the room was a large viewport. A viewport looking out into space. There was a battle going on outside but what caught Marin's attention was a dark robed figure who was standing at the viewport. The figure had a dark hood over his head and was looking out into space. It felt like she was moving closer and closer to the dark shape. Marin realized she was afraid. She felt fear running through every part of her body. Suddenly a crimson blade of light shot out from the right hand of the figure in the dark robe and he turned towards Marin. Where she expected a face under the hood she saw a mask, grey with a red pattern. For an instant she looked straight into the visor of the mask, then everything went white.

Marin opened her eyes. She was sweating and breathing heavily. She tried to get up and immediately started to stagger. She quickly grabbed hold of the sarcophagus and stood there for a while. The fear had flowed from her body the moment she woke up but the vision had mentally exhausted her. When she felt more stable she walked outside. To her surprise the sun was a lot higher then she expected. She saw Jes sitting at a campfire in between two of the buildings.

"Hey there, I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to wake up." He said jokingly, then he saw the tired look on her face. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just a little tired. " Marin said reassuringly.

"Did it work?" Jes asked. "Did you have another vision?"

"Yes. I did."

"Did you see master Yoda again?"

"No, " Marin said. She didn't really know what to make of everything she saw. "I think I saw the past this time, through the eyes of whoever was buried here. I couldn't recognize anything; the architecture, the space ships, it all looked so alien! But I thought I saw Coruscant at one time."

"Alright, " Jes said. He recognized the weariness and confusion on Marin's face." I'd love to hear more about what you saw. But first, I made some dinner. you hungry?" Jes asked.

"Yes, let's eat!" Marin said with a relieved look on her face.

The following morning they were packing up their camp. Marin hadn't talked much about her vision any more. Nor had she had any new ones that night. She had slept like a rose.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here any longer?" Jes asked

"I'm sure. I've seen enough for now. Maybe I would like to come back here later."

"Sure, I don't think this place will be going somewhere anytime soon. What about the lightsaber? Don't you want to take it with you? Try to repair it maybe?"

"No, It was hers." Marin said, looking at the building.

"And besides, I think I want to be a different kind of Jedi."


	12. Silver line

"Jes! Are you coming? I don't want to miss Kinnar's run!" Marin yelled as she walked out the door.

"I'm right behind you." She heard Jes calling from upstairs. Marin had spent all morning polishing and tuning her swoop bike. Even the people who didn't enter in the Silver Line Run made sure their swoops looked fine an ran perfectly.

The Silver Line festival originated from a rural area on Corellia where the original settlers had come from. Once a year, after the harvests where in, they would organize an open swoop race which everyone could join. When the settlers had started their colony on Andean they had continued the tradition. Every year a track was layed out that started in the center of the town. It went on through the fields and circled back through the forest roads to the start/finish back in the town. There were different classes for different kinds of swoops. There was even a youth class in which the younger colonists between twelve and sixteen years old could compete. It had all started with a few laps around town but through the years it had grown in popularity and a small festival had grown around the Silver Line run. In the area near start/finish there was a stage where local bands would be playing all day and a large tent where the people could enjoy something to eat and drink. There was entertainment for the children, there were food and drink stands along the track and even some stands at the finish line for the spectators. All in all the Silver Line run was a welcome relief for many after a busy season.

Jes and Marin arrived just in time to hear the announcement for the start of the youth heats. Kinnar had told her he was in the second heat. That meant she still had time to see if some of the others were already here. She found Kaily and Jann at one of the food stands near the finish line. The four of them spent a lot of time at the swoop track just outside of town after school.

"Hey Marin!" Jann said.

"Hey Jann, Hey Kaily!" Marin replied.

"Coming to see Kinnar?" Jann asked.

"Yep, someone has to pick him up when he falls off his swoop." Marin answered sarcastically.

"I hear you." Kaily says. "I hope that reckless style of his does him some good out on the track."

"Yeah, he is fast though. He should have a chance at making top five if he stays on." Jann said.

"We'll see I guess." Marin said. "Anyone watching the first heat?"

"Nah, we figured we'd get something to eat before the second heat." Kaily said.

"Yeah, besides, I don't know any of the riders in the first heat." Jann said.

"Right. Hey, anyone knows who those guys are?." Marin asked, pointing to a large stall in the center of the food court. "I don't remember them being here last time."

"No, they're new. My dad says they're potential buyers for our crops. He's in the trade committee and he said that they're some trading company all the way from the core. Insel something I think they're called." Jann explained.

"Ah." Marin answered, not quite sure she understood. "What are they doing here now though?"

"They're sponsoring the festival. My dad said they wanted to show some goodwill because they were unknown in these regions so they offered to sponsor the Silver Line festival if they could host an info stall. That way people could get to know about the company I guess." Jann said.

Marin looked at the stall. There were two people behind the stall in clothing with logo's on it chatting with some of the locals. There were also information terminals where you could presumably read about Insel Bio and there were some protocol droids sporting the company logo walking around, presumably informing people about what a great company this was.

"Well, as long as they're sponsoring the festival, I guess it can't hurt to get to know each other." Marin said doubtfully. She looked around. The main square pas already packed with people. The food stalls were busy and there was already a small crowd in front of the stage where a local band was sound checking. There'd be some music in between the heats but the real festival would start with the award ceremony later tonight after all the races.

She turned around at the sound of swoops approaching. The first riders of the heat had already passed the finish line a few times. The announcer was going wild over someone taking the lead with a spectacular overtaking maneuver. A single heat consisted of ten laps around the track so Marin knew she still had some time.

"Hey, are you guys going to watch from here?" Marin asked.

"No, we're going to the stands and see the action near the finish line. You coming with us?"

"Nah, I want to go to Tanner's bend and see how he makes the first turn. If he can get the advantage there he might have a chance I think. I'll come join you guys later OK?" Marin said.

"Sure! See you later Marin." Kaily said.

Tanner's bend was the first bend in the track. A hard right following a long straight right after the starting line. If you had a quick start and you could hit the turn on the ideal line it would save you some valuable seconds and gave you an advantage over everyone who would have to take the turn more slowly in a group. Kinnar was good at starts. His swoop was light and had an amazing acceleration. If he could pull it off here he might even have a shot at a top three finish. Marin needed to see for herself how the first turn would go. It was far more interesting than the actual start, most people just didn't realize that.

After a short walk alongside the track she reached Tanner's bend. There were some more people there. Some swoop fans who knew there was probably going to be excitement here. One of the Insel protocol droids was shuffling along the track looking for people to inform about what a wonderful opportunities Insel had to offer. There was also a family at the other side of the bend. Probably family of one of the riders. A father, mother and their young daughter. The father was pointing along the bend, probably explaining to the daughter why this was such a good place to stand. Behind the bend was one of the track relay towers. These towers where ten meters high, deployable antenna array's which had been modified with flood lights and speakers. The lights where there to illuminate the track at dusk and the echoing voice of the announcer blasted out of the speakers. Keeping people updated about the race. Apparently the riders of the first heat were entering their final lap. And judging from the enthusiasm of the announcer it was still a close call. They'd be here any time now. The little girl was getting more and more excited as well as her father. Maybe it was her brother or sister in the first heat.

A moment later the first riders where at the bend. As she expected, the first one to arrive would have the luxury of following the ideal line without having to brake hard or dodge other swoops in front of him. He already had a comfortable head start. A few seconds later a group of four swoops approached the turn. She spotted the ambition in the riding style of the third swoop from a mile away. He tried to overtake the second swoop in an opportunistic attempt long before they hit the turn. No doubt so he could try to take number two at the turn. His first attempt failed though, leaving him stuck in third place. Marin saw him launch a second attempt right at the start of the turn by braking late. What number three didn't expect however, was a small steering mistake of the second one in the group. Marin saw it happening in the split of a second. Number two jolted right at the last moment while number three braked too late and crashed right into the left side of number two. The rider lost control and fell off. Marin's face turned pale. She saw the second swoop, now riderless, spin out of control and launch itself over the track barriers, right over the spectators and into the base of the relay tower. Marin quickly turned around. With a loud noise and a lot of creaking she saw the tower base giving away. The crashed swoop caught fire and the tower started to fall, right in the direction of the mother and the little girl. Their attention was turned towards the fallen rider, who was currently being helped off the track by the father of the family. Marin wanted to yell but saw there was no time and she was too far away.

Without hesitation she closed her eyes, lifted her arms and concentrated on nothing but the falling tower. She had never been very good at telekinetic use of the force. The largest object she had even been able to lift was a rock the size of a human head. First, it seemed the tower was way too heavy for her. But she kept at it, channeling more and more of the Force through her body and projecting it at the tower. It took everything she had to slow down the fall of the tower to an almost complete stop. In the background she heard muffled yelling when the other people realized what was happening and when she could take no more she opened her eyes and saw that the mother and the child had run clear of the falling tower. The tower crashed down. Marin fell to her knees, exhausted and out of breath. She couldn't believe it. She did it! She looked around her, suddenly realizing that she just might have blown her cover. _Good_ , No one was looking in her direction. All the attention was pointed at the accident and the fallen tower. The father was back with his family, giving their crying daughter a big hug while others where tending to the wounded rider. She also saw people from festival emergency team arriving at the scene. One started extinguishing the fire near the base of the tower. Marin thought it best to sneak out unnoticed. Hopefully no one had seen her do anything.

On her way back she saw Jann and Kaily running towards her.

"Marin! Are you alright?" Jann said breathing heavily from the run over here.

"We heard about an accident at Tanner's bend! And that people might be hurt!" Kaily said.

"I'm fine." Marin managed to get out.

"Well, you don't look fine! You sure you're not hurt?" Jann asked.

"Yeah, it just scared me half to death I guess. It was a close call." Marin explained.

"What happened?"

"Well, there was a crash in the bend. And the kill-switch must have malfunctioned because when the rider fell off, the swoop spun out of control and launched itself over the barriers, right into one of the relay towers. "

"Wow! Did anyone get hurt?" Jann asked.

"Well as far as I could tell only the rider who fell off actually got hurt. The other one managed to stay on his swoop. The relay tower gave in and fell over though, almost hitting some of the spectators. But they managed to get out of the way just in time. "

"How is he? The rider I mean." Kaily asked.

"Well, last I saw him he was sitting upright and there where people helping him. " Marin answered.

"Ok, pretty lucky then. Considering what happened, I mean. They postponed the next few heats for now, to deal with the accident. So let's get back to the festival. You can sit down for a while, catch your breath. " Jann said.

"I told you I'm fine! Let's go find Kinnar, he'll want to hear about this." Marin said and they walked off towards the main area.

The three of them walked over to the paddock. The paddock consisted of a series of cargo containers modified to serve as makeshift swoop garages. Here the riders could prepare for the race and do some final tuning. It was very busy now that the second heat had just been rescheduled to start in half an hour. People were running around carrying all kinds of spare parts, pushing swoops and hastily making final repairs. It didn't take long before Marin spotted Kinnar. His garage seemed like an island of tranquility amidst the chaotic whirlwind that seemed to be going on in the rest of the paddock. He was sitting against a wall next to his swoop. He got up when he saw Marin approaching.

"Marin! you're alright! I heard about the accident and you told me you'd be watching from Tanners bend."

"Yeah, I was there. Pretty bad crash. Luckily no one was badly hurt." Marin said.

"I know! " Kinnar confirmed.

"So, how are you? Are you ready?" Marin asked.

"Yeah, " Kinnar said with a calm voice. "I'm ready. Too bad they moved the heat back though. I was ready half an hour ago."

"Well, don't do anything stupid ok? Don't try to show off like you do when we race." Marin said.

"I won't. Listen, Marin? I know I have a big mouth sometimes and I take risks and all, but I know where I stand here. I'm probably not going to win this one. There are more experienced riders with faster swoops here. I won't take big risks trying to get to first place. I'll be very happy if I end up in the top five."

"Ok Kinnar. Listen, make sure you get a flying start ok? The first two will probably be way faster than you, I've seen their swoops. But if you can catch number three and four before Tanners bend, you might have a shot at third place. I'm serious!"

"I know Marin. Thank you! It'll be a lightning start! You watch!

"We'll be cheering for you!" Kaily said.

"Tanks guys! Well, I'd better get ready. See you after the race?"

"Sure will!" Marin said.

"Good luck!" Jann said.

And Kinnar raced. There were no accidents in his heat. He had a great start, overtaking two swoops in front of him, like they said. And, as Marin expected, he was able to take the ideal line in Tanner's bend in the first lap, landing him in third place with a comfortable distance between number four and five. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. The first two riders were way faster and had created a large gap. But Kinnar made no mistakes. Which meant that he ended in third place and won the bronze medal in his first Silver Line run. He was extremely happy and treated his friends on a nice festival dinner after the races to celebrate his result. When they were eating at one of the stalls Jes came walking over.

"Hey Guys! I heard you rode a great race Kinnar. Congratulations!"

"Thanks Mr. Darrin!" Kinnar said.

"Jes! Where have you been? I haven't seen you all day!" Marin said, relieved to see him.

"I'll explain in a minute. Guys, you mind if I borrow this young lady for a minute?"

"Sure Mr. Darrin." Jann said.

"Bring her back alright?" Kinnar said. "I want to buy us another round of drinks!"

Jes and Marin walked off to a more quiet place behind the food stalls. As they walked, Jes began to explain.

"Marin, I ran into Arikh, the rodian who works at the comm building. He said that an urgent message had come in from Mirakeii. It was directed to me. So I went with him to check it out."

"Was it from Caen?" Marin asked.

"It was. " And Jes paused, looking into the distance.

"Well, what was in it?" Marin asked impatiently.

"It was a code phrase. " Jes said, snapping back to his conversation with Marin. " One we used in one of the missions we worked on together. The code was used for when a field agent had critical intel which he could only report in person. Caen never contacted me like this before. So I figure he needs to see me, and it's important. If it's OK with you I want to take a shuttle there tonight. I'll only be gone for a few days."

"Sure Jes, what do you think it's about?"

"I don't know Marin. I really don't know. Will you be alright?"

"I'll be fine. I'm probably going to go to watch the main race with Kinnar, Kaily and Jann and see some of the performances afterwards. I'll make sure to ride home together with Kinnar. " Marin said.

"Good. I'll tell Art that I'm leaving and I'll see you in a few days. Take care Marin."

"You too Jes."

Marin went back to the festival and had that promised next round of drinks with her friends. After dinner they all went to the main stage to see an off-world band that was supposed to be quite good. When Marin looked around her she was hit by the enormous contrast between her current life and her life only two years ago. For a minute her thoughts wandered off to her old friends at the temple and everything that had happened. Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Kinnar. "Marin, you all right? You look a bit pale."

Marin shook the thoughts of the past away and decided that whatever happened in the past and whatever was going to happen in the future, she was going to have fun now. "I'm fine Kinnar. Want to go to the front and get a better view of the band? I actually quite like them!"

"Great idea Marin! Let's go guys! Follow me!"

 ** _Light freighter Elaris. Hyperspace, en route to Corruscant._**

Major Aries sat behind his desk, looking at the view screens. A report had come in just before the last jump which had hit one of the flags he had set.

 _After 2 years, I might have found them again_.

He read the report again. It was a brief bulleted list of the findings of an intel team on some remote colony world. Attached was a video feed taken by one of the protocol droids showing what the report listed as _"suspicios behavior_ " and some footage from one of Insel 's security camera's which had been upgraded with military grade facial recognition capabilities.

The galaxy was a big place, filled with billions and billions of people. So even with the best facial recognition technology available, a facerec hit alone was far too unreliable. Many of the so called "hits" that came in were actually misses. You'd be surprised how many people actually looked alike in an entire galaxy. That's why a facerec hit alone would just be labeled with the proper metadata and archived. Patterns however, were far more interesting. Like a facerec hit in combination with a suspicious event, like this one.

He rewatched the footage from the protocol droid. It showed some kind of rural area with what looked like a makeshift race track. He checked the report.

 **Planet** : Andean

 **Sector** : Noson

 **Region** : Mid-rim

 **Short description** : Farming colony (Correllian)

 **Population** : +- 4100, (91% human, 4% rodian, 1% ...

There was some more info like the top five export products, a basic history of the colony and some notable Corellian characters that had once lived there. No one interesting though. He went back to the footage. He saw some spectators by the track: a family, human. His attention shifted to a girl standing at the other side of the bend. He slowed down the playback speed when the swoops started arriving. A clumsy steering mistake, a crash. One of the swoops landed in what looked like a speaker tower. After it exploded, the tower started to fall in the direction of the family, and, slowed down. It almost came to a complete stop in mid-air. Aries stopped the footage and entered some commands to zoom in on the girl. She had her eyes closed and her hands in the air as if she was holding something heavy. Her face showed strain and intense concentration. He pulled up the facerec report on a second monitor next to the footage.

 **Data access:** Classified

 **Security clearance level** : C-5

 **Target** : Marin Koorna

 **Age:** 13

 **Affiliation** : Jedi Order

 **Rank/** **position** **:** Jedi Initiate

 **Special conditions** : Target has undergone Jedi training. Caution: Target has shown above average force affinity. Caution: Target believed to be in the company of Jes Darin (profile), former Correlian defence force, Naval Special Operations Command.

 **Status** : Fugitive, Missing

 **Criminal record** : Conspiracy against the Empire, Treason

 **Last known location** : Ba'an (Bastion Station)

Aries looked at the picture from the facerec camera, the picture on the profile and the girl in the frozen frame from the video feed.

He typed some commands on a third terminal and another video feed popped up. This one was a video from a customs security point on Ba'an, about two years ago. He froze the image and zoomed in on the girl. There was no doubt. He'd found her again. He thought about the first time he saw them, almost two years ago.

He remembered going Bastion station only to find out there was no trace of them there. He had to dig deeper to find out that the arrival and departure logs had been tampered with. Data had been removed and replaced. From the listed arrival and departure time slots and docking schedules he could easily spot the holes. Missing ships, ghost cargo, there were holes everywhere. The tampered administration did however seem to focus on the exact time frame that Koorna and Darin would have been on Bastion. The data corruption was so randomly spread that it was impossible to deduce which missing data had anything to do with the two fugitives he was looking for. A digital smoke screen. A likely conclusion was that it had been done by someone who knew exactly what he was doing but probably did not have the time to do it properly. Probably an unknown ally. A few desperate attempts at guessing gave him nothing. They'd evaded him that time. But he had found them again.

He entered a few new commands on his terminal and the profile of Marin Koorna was swiftly replaced with that of Jes Darin.

 **Data access:** Classified

 **Security clearance level** : C-5

 **Target** : Jes Darin

 **Age:** 58

 **Affiliation** : Jedi Order, Corellian Defence Fleet (AWOL)

 **Rank/position:** Employee, general and technical services

 **Special conditions** : Target has undergone special operations military training in CDF, NSOC division. Caution: Target has extensive knowledge of advanced weaponry and has extensive combat experience.

 **Status** : Fugitive, Missing

 **Criminal record** : Conspiracy against the Empire, Aiding a wanted fugitive

 **Last known location** : Ba'an (Bastion Station)

Corran Aries had grown up on Corellia. The special forces of NSOC had been among his childhood heroes. He hadn't know about Darrin at the time. Names and pictures of actual NSOC members had never been released to the public. For most of their existence they had operated in secrecy and the governments had continually denied their existence every time a rumor came out. Once the rumors of their existence started to spread the media went wild with them. They were portrayed as the saviors of the Corellian system in the fight against organized crime and terrorism. In the media they became known as the Selonia Ghosts after more and more rumors of their existence surfaced. Their existence was finally officially confirmed after a high-profile mission on Selonia. There was a lot of instability in the Corellian system at the time and Corran guessed that portraying an image of a team of specially trained bad-asses fighting all kinds of wrong was a way for the government to create goodwill with the people. Saying: "Look we're doing something about your problems." Exposing them publically had however also made them a target for some of the government's more powerful enemies. And it wasn't long before NSOC was disbanded after a series of disastrous missions. Their image remained though. And it wasn't long after Corran Aries had joined republic intelligence that he requested some of the classified data on his childhood heroes. Just because he finally could. Their classified track-record of missions had been impressive. Possibly even more impressive than the image painted by the media had suggested. The irony didn't escape him. He was now finally going to meet one of the people he looked up to when he was young by hunting him down and arresting him. A wry smile appeared on his face at the thought. It would only add to the challenge.

He activated the comm. A man in a black uniform appeared on one of the screens.

"Sir?"

"Drop out of hyperspace the nearest safe exit vector and get me the COO for Insel Bio in the Noson sector on direct comm." Aries ordered.

"Yes, sir." And the image went black.

A moment later a holographic image of an elaborately dressed Neimoidian male appeared in front of him. He looked visibly annoyed.

"I don't know who you are and how you got access to my private comm channel but I can assure you your superior will hear of this." The Neimoidian barked.

"Major Aries, Imperial intelligence. I'll get straight to the point as not to waste too much of your precious time. You have an ongoing acquisition operation on a small farming colony in the Noson sector, named Andean. I will be taking temporary control of this operation immediately. The reason for this is that we believe that the colony is harboring two dangerous fugitives of the empire. We need your operation as cover for gathering further intelligence on the subjects and apprehending them. After the subjects have been apprehended and escorted of the colony you will be able to continue your operation." Aries explained.

The Neimoidian was apparently getting up to speed with the Andean operation as they spoke and shook his head.

"As grateful as I am for the opportunities the Empire is giving us, I cannot let you take control. This seemingly small acquisition is of great strategic importance to the very Empire you represent. I advise you to get your priorities straightened out first before you call me, Major Aries. We are simply too close to acquiring the resources. The best we can do is let you operate your spies within our operation but we cannot hand over complete control."

Aries hated Neimoidians. Everything was a bloody negotiation with them. Well, this one wouldn't last long.

"Director Mar Alad, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, but I'm afraid this is not a request. We'll be taking over as of now. As for contacting my superior, if you would like, I could setup a meeting for you with Lord Vader himself if you have any objections you want to discuss. You can explain to him why your meager resource operation is more important than capturing fugitives he has personal interest in."

Mar Alad just stood there, probably trying to see if Aries was serious. Aries' face was like stone though. He'd done this a hundred times before. Finally Alad responded simply with: "You're kidding me."

"I wouldn't dare." Aries replied, and he meant it. He didn't like throwing Vader's name around but he couldn't risk letting these targets get away again. And he wasn't lying about the personal interest.

Mar Alad was silent for another moment. Then he continued, seemingly convinced by Aries' story. "Would Lord Vader be overseeing this operation himself?"

"No." I'll be in command. But he'll be informed. And Illustrious as he is, I wouldn't be surprised if he would turn up to inspect the results for a high profile case like this. "

"Very well. " Mar Alad said after another brief silence .

"I'll inform our chief of operations on Andean. They'll be expecting you. Let the empire know that Insel Bio is doing everything it can to assist and protect its interests."

"Your cooperation is greatly appreciated." Aries said without actually giving a damn. The holo image disappeared. Aries triggered his comm again.

"Captain, find me a sizable imperial force close to the Noson sector."

The captain gave some inaudible commands to someone off screen. A second later he responded: "Sir, part of the fifty-third task force is currently overseeing the defense of the construction of the new military academy on Bellion, Sir. A few light cruisers, some tie squadrons and a storm trooper regiment."

"That'll have to do. Inform them that we'll be arriving shortly. We're going to need some help. Priority code alpha-echo-one-one-four-kilo. Also, inform Coruscant that we have a priority mission and will be delayed. And set a course for Bellion. The report will have to wait.

 ** _Mirakeii deep space trading station, Noson sector_**

When Jes arrived on Mirakeii station he went straight to the places he and Caen usually used when they met. Since Caen didn't specify a location in his message he would have to check all of them until he found him. After checking locations for hours he still hadn't found Caen. There were also no messages for him. _This wasn't like Caen, he's never been late before._ Maybe something more urgent had come up. Jes decided he could just as well see if he could get some new density sensor modules for the harvester droids while he was here. Maybe Caen would show up in the meantime.

With some luck Jes found a trader who happened to have compatible density sensor modules he could use so he bought enough to replace the broken ones. However, Caen had still not shown up. Jes decided to give him another day to show up so he extended the reservation for his hangar space with one night.

The following morning Caen was still nowhere to be found. Jes spent the day looking around for his old friend while pretending to search for more replacement parts until Caen finally showed up at the end of the afternoon. Jes was having a drink at one of the bars he frequented when he was on Mirakeii when Caen suddenly sat down next to him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting old friend. But we must talk."

"There you are. How've you been man?" Jes asked.

"Alright, alright. Been busy. How are you?"

"Same here. It seems there's always work to do on Andean. Farming, trading, fixing things." Jes sighed. "That reminds me, before I forget, have you ever heard of a company named Insel Bio Trading? Supposed to be some trading company from the core. "

Caen gave him a suspicious look. "Why do you want to know?"

"Apparently representatives from Insel Bio have contacted multiple members of the Andean trading committee showing their interest to buy up a large share of the production. The strange thing is that although no one has heard of Insel Bio before, two of the committee members who have been approached already seem convinced that we should take the deal. Art Haal, the farmer we're staying with, doesn't trust them one bit and so I offered to see if I could find some more information on this company.

"Damnit Jes. You're friend's instincts are right. Insel is a front for the empire." Caen said shaking his head. "They're bad news."

"For the empire? What would they want with a trading company?"

"When we were investigating the expansion of imperial military activities we found a lot more than just the militarization of large hyperspace junctions. We also found evidence of resource acquisition on a massive scale. In some instances the empire would just bluntly annex mining facilities or factories under the pretense of protection. But they would actually just seize and take over the entire operation, rerouting the production to who knows where. But the expansion we found was on such a large scale, we think that they do not have the military resources yet to take everything they need by brute force. We think that's why they took over some Coruscant based trading companies and do some of the necessary acquisition through them. Insel Bio Trading is one of these companies. One day, no one has so much as heard of them and suddenly their entire board gets replaced mere weeks after the imperial ascension. Then their name turns up all over the place. The patterns of resource acquisitions loosely resemble the patterns we see in the military expansion operation. That's when we sent in some agents to find out more about these fronts. As far as I know they didn't uncover any hard proof yet, but circumstantial evidence suggests that Insel is using certain alternative methods to acquire the resources they want. "

"Alternative methods?" Jes asked skeptically.

"Exactly. We found indirect evidence of intimidation, strong-arming sellers into signing contracts, blackmailing, buying off possible competitors, you name it. Again, we can't proof anything as far as I know but I've seen enough to know this is bad business. Also, our agents have intercepted numerous transmissions from Insel outposts containing military grade encrypted data. We don't know what's in the transmissions yet but we suspect that the empire is also using these companies for gathering intelligence. " Caen explained.

"Their spying for the empire?" Jes couldn't believe what he just heard.

"It looks that way." Caen confirmed.

"There are a lot of maybe's and assumptions in your story. Is the investigation ongoing? Will you know more soon?" Jes asked.

"No. That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. We were really getting somewhere with this investigation. But the more we uncovered, the more we realized how big this is. The results that came in started to paint a terrifying picture of military expansion on a scale we had never seen before. And an enormous amount of resources just seemed to disappear from the market. There were even wild guesses that someone was building a massive secret fleet somewhere. But here's the thing, nothing was on record anywhere. It was all off the books.

All in all a really scary picture started to emerge. Then suddenly, I get called back to Corellia. And I find out I wasn't alone. All the agents I knew that where part of the operation had been called back, only to find out that the entire leadership of Corellian intelligence has been replaced. All the way up to the top. The new division commander thanked us for our great work and told us the operation is completed. We had all been reassigned. Most of us got assignments investigating possible insurgencies against the new empire in the Corellian sector. I mean, _operation_ _completed_ ?! It felt like we hadn't uncovered twenty percent of what we needed to find. There was to be no more communication about previous operations and all information was archived with absurdly high clearance levels.

The whole atmosphere there scared me Jes. And I'm used to a bit of fear. I think whatever the empire is doing, they sure have a lot of reach."

"Wow, that's... pretty unbelievable. " Was all that Jes could come up with.

"I know. Scary stuff huh?"

"What are you going to do? Retire?" Jes asked.

"Yeah, right! I saw a few agents express their dissatisfaction with the abrupt closure on the previous operation in one of the reassignment briefings. Their names never appeared on the reassignment rosters and three weeks later no one has heard of them since. Now, we're used to agents going dark for a time while they're in the field but this feels different. I don't trust this Jes. I'm getting out."

"Where are you going to go if you don't trust the new leadership?" Jes asked.

"I met up in secret with some like-minded colleagues and we got in contact with some people in _alternative organizations_. People who are not happy with how the empire is dealing with things. They're looking for capable people and they could use our help. "

"Rebels?" Jes said bluntly.

"I don't want to paste labels on everything yet. But I do know I want to fight for the good guys. And I'm not sure that's us anymore. Look, " Caen looked around a bit nervously. "Bad things are happening Jes. If you're ever looking to get in contact. It is said that an old friend of ours is trying to organize things. "

"An old friend?" Jes asked curiously.

"Yeah, Bel Iblis."

"The senator?" Jes said with mild surprise.

"Not anymore. Apparently his family was assassinated. Some say it had something to do with his strong anti-imperial views. He's gone into hiding and word is he's trying to reach out to other resistance movements in order to join forces. "

"Alright. Thanks for the info. " Jes said, he felt a bit overwhelmed by all this.

"Wait." Caen held up his hand. "There's one more thing. The reason I was late."

"Yeah, can't remember you ever being late."

"I know, listen. I was supposed to be here yesterday. But just before I left I was alerted that some of the flags I had set had been hit."

"Flags?" Jes asked confused.

"Yeah. Flags I put on files. That means that if anyone accessed those files, I would receive a notification. "

"So? What's so important about those files?"

"They're your files Jes."

"My files?!" Jes said surprised.

"Yes. I put flags on them sometime after you escaped Bastion two years ago. I figured that if they were on your trail again, they might try to access your information and I might get you a heads up."

"Right. Thanks." Jes said, still a bit confused. " What files where accessed?"

"Everything; NSOC, your personnel record, mission reports, everything Jes. "

"Do you know who accessed them?"

"No, there's the weird part. The logs are marked classified. Whoever it is, he must be high-up. He was able to access even the highest access-level files. I wasn't able to find out more about who it was without exposing myself. Apart from the risk I would take, this could in itself lead back to you. So I took no further action."

"Smart. Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be sure to watch my back. "

"Good. Listen, I need to go now. We won't meet again here. But, who knows what the future brings huh?"

"Yeah, thanks again for everything man. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."

"Let's say we're even now. And the next round is on you." Caen said with a small smile on his face. "Say hi to Marin for me and tell her I'm sorry we didn't get to say good bye."'

"Will do old friend. Take care."


	13. Dusk

**Andean, Swoop training track**

Marin watched as Kinnar and Kaily raced by the finish line on their swoops.

"Looks like Kaily's hours of fine-tuning finally payed of!" Jann said as he sat next to Marin. "She almost had him on that last straight. "

"Yeah, Marin answered. "She's getting closer. But Kinnar's still faster in the corners. "

They were sitting in the grass next to the make shift swoop training track near the town. Marin often hung out there with her friends. They would show off their latest tweaks to their swoop bikes and race each other for fun. It was a warm summer evening and the sun was already starting to set.

They watched as the two swoops slowed down and turned off the track towards them.

"Whoooo did you see that?" Kaily said enthusiastically. "I almost had you there!"

"You wish. " Kinnar answered. "But I have to admit, you were pretty fast on the straights."

"Hah! Next time, you're mine!" Kaily replied.

"Good race you two!" Marin said to the two swoop racers who had just rode up and stopped where Marin and Jann were sitting. "Keep this up and it'll get really interesting next year in the silver line run. "

"You bet it will be interesting!" Kaily replied. "Because I'll win! Hahah!"

"We'll see Kaily! Hey Kinnar, " Marin said. "I'm heading home. It's getting dark and Jes should be coming back tonight. You coming or staying?"

"Yeah, I'm going back too. I'll ride along to fender's pass. See you around guys!"

"Till next time Kinnar! I'll beat you then!"

Kaily said as Marin and Kinnar road off.

"Bye!" Yelled Jann.

They decided not to race this time and casually rode off next to each other towards the setting sun.

"How are things at home Kinnar, everything ok with your parents?"

"I guess. My father is upset about something with the trade committee though. He doesn't talk to me about it but I hear him getting angry from time to time. He keeps saying something like this wouldn't have happened if he'd been on the committee. "

"Yeah, I hear Art going on about it all the time. Not sure what's going on though. " Marin replied.

"I'm sure it'll be fine though. " Kinnar said. "They're always fussing about one deal or another this time a year. "

"Yeah," Marin said absent mindedly. She felt a weak tingling in the back of her mind. She couldn't place it. Must be the sun in her eyes.

As they were riding along a forest road a black speeder suddenly came out of the tree line and stopped in the middle of the road.

"Whooah, watch out!" Kinnar yelled as they came to an abrupt stop about twenty yards from the speeder. Four men stepped out. One in some kind of uniform and three in white armor.

"What the hell is this?!" Kinnar asked out loud.

Marin recognized with a shock that the tingling in the back of her mind had been a warning. They'd found her.

Quietly she asked Kinnar: "Kinnar, listen carefully and do as I say.."

"Ok Marin, but do you know what's going on here?"

"They're after me Kinnar. " She said as she looked over her shoulder. Three troopers in white armor on military speeder bikes had come out of the trees and stopped on the road behind them, blocking a possible retreat.

"I can't let them get me Kinnar. There's no time to explain. I'm going to create a diversion. Then we'll both race our swoops into the woods and make for the Haal homestead. If they get me anyway, get Jes. Tell him what happened. He'll know what to do. "

Suddenly she was interrupted.

"Marin Koorna. You are under arest for betrayal of the empire. Step down from your swoop bike, lay down on the ground with your hands behind your head. "

The man in the uniform said with a loud, commanding voice. The soldiers lined up their rifles and aimed straight at Marin and Kinnar.

"But who are they Marin? What is going on?" Kinnar asked with a hint of panic in his voice as he watched the soldiers take position to cover both flanks.

"No time. You have to trust me Kinnar. Remember what I said. Get to Jes.

Marin suddenly lay flat on her bike and sent the bike forward at full throttle towards the speeder. She quickly hit a glance over her shoulder and saw Kinnar race off into the woods to his left. She got ready to make a sharp turn to her right when she felt a sharp sting in her back. Everything went black.

 **Andean, Haal homestead**

When Jes landed his transport shuttle back at the farm it was already getting dark. He went inside and met Art who was just coming down the hallway.

"Hey Jes, welcome back. Howd'it go? Got all the parts we need?" Art asked.

"That'll have to wait Art. I have some disturbing news. Where is Marin?" Jes asked quickly.

Esper came walking into the hallway alarmed by the sound.

"Marin is out. She went to the swoop track by the town with Some friends. She should be back anytime now though. She didn't want to miss you coming back." Esper said.

"Ok. " Jes said. "Listen, I met with that friend of mine on Mirakeii. The one working for Corellian intelligence. When I asked him about Insel Bio he told me they were a front for the Empire, tasked with acquiring resources necessary for their military expansion. He told me they are also known to use 'alternative methods' to reach their goals." Jes explained.

"Like bribery and threats. Huh! I knew these guys were no good. " Art said.

"Exactly, it matches what we've seen here. The problem is their investigation was halted and all intelligence resources were reassigned before they could gather the necessary evidence. So he couldn't tell me much more. He suspects the empire is behind that too. So we don't really know what will happen if we refuse their offer. I suspect that it depends on how badly the Empire needs the resources. If negotiations fail, they might come and take them by force. " Jes said.

"Damnit. So we might me screwed either way? " Art asked.

"Looks like it. There is something else. My friend told me that he had serious suspicions that someone was on to Marin and me. That they might have found out that we are here. "

"How is that possible? No one here knows who you are but us?" Art said surprised.

"Well," Jes continued. " he also said there were also indications that Insel was covertly gathering intel for the empire. They might have caught us on facial recognition by pure luck." Jes explained.

"Damnit. What are the bloody odds?!" Art said frustrated. "Well, what do we do now?"

"I will talk to Marin when she gets back. But we'll probably have to move. We just cannot take the risk of staying. "

"I think that's her now. " Esper interrupted, pointing to a headlight followed by a dust cloud rapidly coming up the access road towards the farm. Jes and Art quickly stepped outside. They were surprised to see it was Kinnar, not Marin who made an abrupt stop right in front of them and jumped off so quickly that he almost fell over.

"Mister Darrin please! You have to help me! " Kinnar said with a panicked voice.

"They've got Marin! They came and... they, they attacked us and they...they're right behind me!" Kinnar yelled with tears welling in his eyes.

"It's ok Kinnar, try to calm down. Who's behind you?" Jes asked, recognizing a crisis.

"Soldiers! In white armor!" Kinnar yelled.

"Ok, how many?" Jes asked.

"Three I think. I mean, there were more but I think the rest stayed with Marin."

"Jes, look. " Art said while pointing down the access road. Headlights. Multiple speeder bikes probably.

"Alright, first things first. Esper, take Kinnar down to the basement and stay quiet till we come get you. Art, get your hunting rifle ready and directly point it at them when they come to the front of the house demanding an explanation for the trespassing. I hope that this will make them want to deescalate before they start shooting. It might buy us some time. If they're really soldiers they will send someone to the back of the house. I will take Kinnar's swoop to the barn and find a cover position. I'll try to take out any soldiers trying to flank us as silently and quickly as possible. Try to stall them at the front as long as you can. Don't take any chances though. When you think they're going to shoot, take them out. If there's more than one, Start with the one on the left. You won't see me but I'll be there and take them out from the right. You got this Art?"

"Got it! " Art said while taking his hunting rifle from Esper who had already got it and checked the charge. He walked to the porch. Jes got out his heavy blaster, removed the safety and headed over to the hastily parked swoop.

Two of the speeder bikes stopped about twenty yards from the house. Jes observed from his position at the side of the house. The kid had been right, the soldiers in white armor stepped out and as Jes expected. The third bike immediately went to the back of the house. Jes followed him quietly.

Art saw two troopers approaching the porch. He raised his rifle to take aim at the left most trooper. "You are trespassing on my land. Identify yourself!" He called out.

"We are with the imperial navy. We're tracking a dangerous fugitive. Place your weapon on the ground now or we will be forced to open fire." the leftmost trooper said.

"There are no fugitives here, I'm alone. You must be mistaken." Art said, hoping to stall them for a while.

"We don't have time for this." The left most trooper said agitated. "Last warning, Place your weapon on the ground and get on your knees with your hands behind your head or we will open fire!"

Art's heart was in his throat. It was now or never. It was an easy shot. Point blank range with a high powered hunting rifle. When he saw the trooper on the left move his rifle up he didn't hesitate and shot him in the chest. The trooper fell backwards. Before the other one could react he sagged to the floor. On The back of his helmet was a large scorched hole. Jes stepped out of the shadows of a nearby tree, holstering his blaster.

"Ok, that's all of them. " Jes said.

"The one in the back?" Art questioned.

"Taken care of. " Jes answered. "Ok, I'll get the bodies and the speeders out of here as quickly as possible. Go inside and try to calm down Kinnar. He needs to tell us exactly what happened.

"...and then she told me to trust her and make my way here through the woods as quickly as possible to find you! I managed to take a quick glance over my shoulder as I turned into the trees and I saw Marin's swoop crash but I think she wasn't on it anymore. She must have fallen off. But then they hit the back of my swoop. Nothing critical but I had to struggle to keep it under control. "Kinnar paused as he suddenly realized something horrible. "Mr. Darrin, do... do you think she's... I mean, did they... kill her?" Kinnar asked with a shaking voice.

"I think she's still alive Kinnar. " Jes said with more conviction then he actually had. "See, you told me they had an ambush ready, but they stopped you and ordered Marin to surrender first. If they wanted to kill her they could have shot her from her swoop without even stopping you two. Also, the other speeder with the rest of the soldiers didn't follow you. That makes me think they had another important task. Like take Marin into custody. I believe they wanted to capture her, not kill her. " Jes explained.

"But we'll have to find out to be sure. "

Kinnar looked a little bit more relieved. "But why? Why would they be after her at all?" Kinnar asked desperately.

"Well, " Jes shook a glance at Art, who nodded slightly. " She trusts you. I guess I better explain a few things..."

"A Jedi?! Really? It all sounds so unbelievable..." Kinnar had listened to Jes' short version of their story but had a hard time believing any of it.

"Are you..." Kinnar started to ask, but he was too startled to finish.

"No, I just worked at the temple. And, I don't know the technicalities but she was studying to become one. " Jes said. When Kinnar kept looking at him he continued:

"She told me you asked her to join in the Silver Line races right?"

"Yeah, " Kinnar said, snapping back to reality. "she told me she couldn't because she was too busy to train. " Kinnar confirmed.

"Exactly. Well, that wasn't really true." Jes responded.

Jes kept looking straight at Kinnar. It took a moment for Kinnar to reach a conclusion but after a few seconds he said: "You mean she didn't want to race because her Jedi powers or something?" Kinnar asked.

"Something like that. " Jes explained, "I think she's not sure her Jedi reflexes would make her a better swoop racer. But I think she's afraid that if she'd win, she'd never know if she won fairly. Especially when she couldn't tell anyone about it. It wouldn't have been fair to begin with. She was really upset about it because she loves to race. "

Jes had always thought Kinnar was a smart kid. Much brighter than the average farm kid here. Right now he confirmed this by seeing straight to the core and asking the right question instead of dwelling on everything he just heard.

"If it was so important to keep this a secret, why tell me all this now?" Kinnar asked.

"Well, carrying secrets around weighs down on people. You have to lie to everyone, all the time. Even people you hold dear. Sometimes to protect them. Marin was having a harder and harder time with it. I could see it. I figured that if she trusts you, kid, she could really use a friend right now."

At that point Art walked back into the room.

"Hey, I contacted a buddy of mine who works security for some of the companies in town. He said he saw a few unmarked black speeders move into the garage of the spaceport communications building. He also saw that armed guards had been stationed around all of the entrances a few minutes later. "

"It must be where they took her."

It also makes the case that she's still alive more plausible, but Jes kept that one for himself.

"Yes, but there's more. I also called Jimms, he works traffic control at the spaceport." Art continued. "I asked him if any ships had left the surface in the past half hour. He said that no ships had left. "

"So she must still be here. " Jes concluded.

"My thoughts exactly, but hear this, he had just gotten orders to cancel all flights, inbound and outbound. And they had to clear all landing pads within the next three hours. "

"Damn. That must be when the pickup arrives. Imperial reinforcements too probably. " Jes said. "We have to act fast."


	14. Not a very solid plan

**_Andean, Haal homestead_**

The discussion in the last ten minutes had not gone as Jes had wanted it to go. Not at all. Both Art and Kinnar were set on helping to free Marin. Only Esper had sat there in silence. Listening intensely. Jes was absolutely against this idea. They had already risked enough for them. No one else should get hurt or even killed on their account.

Art would have none of it. Jes had argued he had a wife to think about but Art just started laughing and Esper waved the comment away. Marin had been like family to Art and Esper. Esper sharply said that she wouldn't let Art back in the house if he didn't do anything to get Marin out. Art was going to help.

Jes had tried to convince Kinnar to go home and warn his parents about what was going on but he wouldn't hear it. He argued that he had worked in the spaceport comm center for the last two summers helping out his uncle and learning about the equipment they used there. He knew the building inside out by now. Jes couldn't argue with the value of that information but still wasn't about to let a fourteen year old boy risk his life on a dangerous rescue operation. Kinnar ended by saying angrily that Marin would have done the same for him.

Jes gave in mostly because he could see that whatever he told them, they would go after Marin anyway. He'd have to stop them both and he realized he didn't have the time or the resources to do this. He'd rather have them work with him then let them go out on their own.

That ended the discussion. Now they were on their way to town to try to assess the situation at the comm center while Esper made sure the surrounding farms were informed about Insel and the Empire.

Jes and Art were in art's speeder and Kinnar on his swoop bike. In the meanwhile night had fallen and it had turned pitch black outside. They parked a few blocks from the spaceport and climbed the roof of a building from where they had a clear view of the front of the comm center and had enough cover to stay hidden. Jess took out his electrobinoculars and peered at the building in front of them.

"I see one patrol outside, two guards on the front entrance. Kinnar, is there anywhere in the building that would be ideal to keep a prisoner? Somewhere without windows and easy to lock down?"

"Well, it's not very big, really. All of the offices have lots of windows so there's always an overview of what's going on outside. Even most of the office inner walls are lined with glass. But there is what they call 'the tech vault' in the basement." Kinnar said.

"The tech vault?" Jes asked.

"Well, it's not an actual vault. But it's actually just a couple of locked utility rooms where they keep backups and spare equipment." Kinnar explained. "It's the only windowless part of the building as far as I know and the doors are code locked."

"Ok, that'll be our best bet then. You don't happen to have any of the codes do you?" Jes asked.

"Sorry, only authorized personnel had access and I bet they changed the codes if they locked Marin in there. "

"Yeah I think so too. But it was worth a shot. Well, it is what it is. We'll have to improvise. You mentioned a back entrance? Any other entrances to the building?" Jes asked.

"Well, there is a service elevator which has a door on the back and offers direct access to the basement. However, it can only be accessed from the inside. The back entrance is still your best bet if you want to get to the basement from the outside. "

"Well," Art said, "we saw the back is also guarded. And they got the place lit up like a Coronet City rush hour. So even getting there poses a challenge. "

"Right. " Jes started.

"See, what I find strange is that they must have figured out by now that they lost the troopers they sent after Kinnar. Yet they decided to dig in rather then send reinforcements to find them. Which tells me they probably do not have as many men here as they want us to believe. With the space port on lock-down greatly limiting options for escape, and reinforcements on the way, digging in would be the tactical approach. That does mean that the odds are probably not as heavily against us as they might seem. Not yet at least. We're still going to need the element of surprise on this one though."

"Which will be kind of hard because they're probably expecting us." Art said. "Didn't you say they might know who you were?"

"Yeah, I expect they do. So we're going to need one hell of a distraction and a lot of luck. Well, at least we're almost out of time. " Jes said.

"What do you mean, at least?" Kinnar asked surprised.

"When you're almost out of time it's often easier to choose the way forward. We must pull this off before the empire gets here. " Jes said grimly.

"Any ideas?" Art asked?

"Is there any way to cut off power to the landing area of the space ports? I expect the reinforcements will need the port operational. So if we manage to take it out, they will have to divert some of their attention to restoring the power. Maybe we can try to overload the generator or something?" Jes asked.

"I have a better idea. " Art responded. "There are emergency redirects in the power grid so parts of the grid can easily be bypassed in the case of a flash flood in the rain season. We only need to disable 2 of the junction points and that part of the space port goes dark. The emergency power supply will kick in however. " Art explained.

"Yes, but since this is not a military facility I expect emergency power will be focused on safety and comm systems, not the landing pads and flight control. It will most likely also disable most of the lighting which might also give us some advantage. How hard will it be for them to turn the power back on?"

"Well, they'll need someone with knowledge of the grid's emergency system. Some of the engineers working at the port for example. But if I destroy the consoles at the junction points they will have to override them manually. My guess is this will give you at least half an hour." Art explained.

"Perfect. Now, to tip the odds in our favor a bit more we're going to need another distraction. Art, We might be able to use your speeder. Can we rig it to ram the front gate on auto pilot?"

Before Art could answer, Kinnar spoke up.

"No problem. I'll have it programmed in a few minutes. "

"Sure," said Art. "Whatever it takes. But won't they be able to see it's empty? Won't they even expect it to be a diversion?" Art asked.

Probably, but that won't matter. As with the power grid, they cannot afford not to check it out. Remember, I expect them to be short-staffed. The thinner we spread them, the better our chances. And with good timing and a little bit of luck, the crash will cause some chaos. My plan is that I go in alone to get Marin. I'll need to be quick. Based on the size of the building, the number of troops we can see and the probable location where they keep Marin, I expect to be in and out within two minutes. The second diversion might buy me some extra seconds when I need them. We'll all be in direct contact through these field comm links I borrowed from you Art. " Jes explained.

"Kinnar, you'll be my eyes and ears from the outside. I need to know exactly what happens. How many troops are dispatched to the power failure, any new patrols that might appear, the presence of guards near the entrances, stuff like that. You'll need to find a high place with a view from the side so you can see the courtyard and the back of the complex, like that building over there. " Jes said pointing to a building to their right. "I will also let you know when to trigger the second diversion. Can you do that?"

"Sure Mr. Darrin, no problem. " Kinnar confirmed.

"Good. Make sure they don't see you and you have a way out for if they do, and call me Jes ok? "

"Ok Jes!" Kinnar said.

"Now, Art, when you have disabled the junctions you get yourself out of there as fast as you can. You'll be too far away to be of any direct help. And if all goes well, we'll be out of there before you can return."

"Understood. " Art confirmed.

"That brings us to extraction. My plan is to get Marin out of here through the back and make for one of the transport shuttles we use to get supplies from Mirakeii over at the hangar. I hope the blackout will provide enough cover for us to escape. I think this is as good a plan we're going to come up with. "

"Not a very solid plan though…. " Art said skeptically.

"I know. We'll have to make it work. Listen. I don't know if we'll see you again afterwards but I want to thank you both for your help and your friendship. And Art, please relay this to Esper as well."

"Sure, you're more than welcome. You've both been part of our family for the past two years. Just get away safely. " Art said.

"Jes?" Kinnar asked. "Tell Marin she's been a great friend and that I'll miss her. "

"I will Kinnar. And I'm sure it's mutual. "

"Let's get ready. "

They inconspicuously parked Art's speeder two blocks from the main gate. While Kinnar and Jes started to reprogram the beckon call on the speeder Art started to make his way to the first power junction. They setup the speeder so that triggering the beckon call would send it full speed into the guarded main gate of the airport. A signal from Kinnar's comm would trigger the speeder.

Thirty minutes later they were all in position.

"I'm at the second junction. Looks clear. Just give me the signal, and all goes dark. " Jes heard Art say over the comm.

"I'm on top of the storage building you pointed out Jes. I have a good view of the back of the comm building and the front courtyard. Still two guards at the back entrance. " Kinnar said.

"I see them. I'm at the back of the building. Art, finish the bypass and give me a heads up when it's about to go dark. Kinnar, keep telling me everything you see. Let's go!"

A few minutes later Art was ready to pull the lever on the second power junction.

"Okay, shutting down second junction in three, two, one..."

 ** _Andean colony, Spaceport communications building_**

Major Aries stood in the security monitoring room when the power went out and all the screens went black. A moment later the emergency generators kicked in and the room was lit with the eerie red glow of the emergency lighting. Only about a quarter of the monitors came back on, those showing the critical areas of the spaceport.

"Let's begin. " he said to himself and keyed the comm. "Report."

"Sir, " a young uniformed intelligence officer appeared on the screen.

"The space port seems to have lost power. Emergency power has kicked in but the landing pads have no power. The seventeenth taskforce is due to arrive in eighty five minutes. They'll need the pads and the hangars for deployment. " the officer said.

"We have some of the technical staff in confinement. Get them here. I want to talk to them. " Aries said calmly.

"Yes sir. " the officer replied and the screen went black.

A few minutes later two spaceport engineers were walked in the room by two storm troopers, accompanied by the officer. They looked around uncomfortably until Aries spoke up.

"The blackout. It seems to be local to the space port and I believe it to be the result of sabotage. How could this have been achieved? Quickly please, if you want to see your families again."

One of the techs spoke up nervously:

"They.. eeuh... they might have disabled the main generator at the power facility. The space port has its own generator there."

"The main generator is guarded and is operational at the moment. There must be another way. "Aries replied."

"The emergency bypass system." The other tech said. "We use it in case of flash floods during the wet season to bypass a particular area by rerouting power junctions. "

"How hard would it be to bypass the spaceport?" Aries asked.

"Well, not very hard. Provided you know what you're doing. You'd only need to reroute two of the junctions. Both within three kilometers from the spaceport. " he added.

"How long before you could get the power back?"

"Well, with the right parts, depending a bit in how they were disabled, it should not take more than thirty minutes to an hour. These systems are built to be replaced easily. " The engineer explained.

"Sir, if I may? " The officer interrupted. "We could detach some troopers from the forty-second to escort the techs to the junctions. " the officer said.

"No. The forty-second stays in position. We need to draw them out. Send the forward perimeter patrol to escort the techs. Get that power back online, ASAP. " Aries spit out.

"Yes sir. You two," the young officer said to the two guards, " get back to your post. You, engineers. Come with me. We're going to get the parts you need. " As they left the monitoring room Aries still stood looking out the window.

"Let's see what you brought to this fight Mr. Darrin. " He said to himself.

 ** _Andean colony, Space port comm building, exterior_**

"Okay, lights are out on most of the spaceport. " Kinnar observed.

"Emergency power is kicking in on some places. Comm building has partial power. Landing pads still dark Jes, as you expected. "

"Good. Any troop movement yet?" Jes asked.

"Not yet. They're moving around a bit nervously though. Wait. The courtyard patrol just went inside the comm building." Kinnar said.

"Okay, let's give them a minute. " Jes said.

"They're coming back out. Two people in what looks like engineers uniforms are with them. And a gravsled packed with equipment. They're moving towards the main gate. "

"They're probably going to fix the junctions. Good. Kinnar, let me know when they're out of sight. That's when I'm heading in. " Jes said.

"Will do Jes. "

 ** _A small room_**

Marin was still a bit dizzy from the stun shot she'd taken in her back. Amazingly she'd suffered no other injuries when she unconsciously fell from her swoop bike. Her back felt like she'd been attacked by a rancor though.

How was she going to get out of this one. She had woken up on a military style field bed in this small room. There were no windows and the steel walls were lined with empty shelves. The door was locked and it looked like there was no way of opening it from the inside. Must be some kind of storage room. She'd repeatedly tried pounding on the door but there was no reply. What was worse was that she had no idea how long she'd been out so she also had no idea where she could be. For all she knew she was already aboard an imperial star destroyer.

She'd learned enough from her past few years of running and hiding not to panic in situations like this. She tried to find inner strength through some Jedi meditation techniques. Next to attempting to suppress some of the pain in her back and head she might learn something about her situation by letting her mind flow through the Force. The Force, which was ever present, quickly presented her with a comfortable feeling. She didn't sense the distinct feeling of the emptiness of space. As her pain faded to the background and she fell deeper into trance, the subtle motions in the force around her became clearer. There was life all around her which told her she was on the surface of a planet. Probably even still on Andean. This familiar feeling gave her hope. Hope that help might be out there somewhere. She also felt hostility. Probably Imperial soldiers and guards nearby.

Was there something she could do? Without direct contact she wasn't nearly powerful enough to influence the minds of others. So she wouldn't be able to just make someone open the door. They also knew they were dealing with a Jedi, so small chance they would be fooled by mind tricks at all. She was suddenly awoken from her deep trance when the lights went out. A few seconds later the room was dimly illuminated by a small red emergency light. She suddenly realized this might be part of a rescue attempt. "Ok," she said to herself. "Let's see if the force will guide me here. " and she closed her eyes again.

 ** _Andean colony, Space port comm building, interior_**

"Ok, I've reached the basement." Jes whispered while he observed the dimly lit hallway. At least the blackout provided him with minimal cover here. It was quite a wide hallway lined with five doors on each side.

"There are two storm troopers on guard by the third door on the right. Is that one of the tech vaults you spoke of Kinnar?"

"Yes, that one and the one across from it. "Kinnar replied over the comm. "

"Ok" Jes answered and he knew he had no time to lose. He sneaked through the hallway clinging to the wall using the cover of darkness to get as close as he could get before being spotted. He lined up his blaster and shot the closest trooper cleanly in the head, his heavy blaster easily puncturing the troopers helmet. He rushed to the second trooper hitting him in the chest with his shoulder bringing the startled trooper sprawling to the floor. He kicked the blaster rifle from his hands and pulled his helmet from his head. He then pulled the trooper upright having one arm in a choking position around his neck and a blaster to his head facing the door controls.

"Open this door and you will live. " Jes said with his voice strained with effort.

"Arghhhh...Reinforcements will already be on the way. If you shoot me, you'll..arrhg.. never get the door open in time. " the trooper gasped.

"Not something you should be worrying about. Last chance. Open... the door. " Jes said with tone that implied impending doom.

The trooper shot a quick glance to his colleague who lay motionless on the floor and reluctantly typed in the door code. When the door opened Jes quickly knocked the trooper out by hitting him on the back of the head with his blaster. He carefully peeked into the room. "Marin? You in here?"

"Jes! " Marin said with surprise and relief.

"Where are we? What happened?"

"We're in the space port comm building. The rest of the story will have to wait. We need to get out quickly."

"Jes?" Kinnar asked over the comm. "You need to get out of there fast! There is a lot of movement on the first and second floor. They're already in the stairwell!"

"Ok Kinnar, where do we go?" Jes asked calmly.

"Quickly, Get to the supply elevator. The entrance should be right next to the stairwell you came in on. It should take you directly outside the back of the building. "

"All right Kinnar, and trigger the second diversion. Hopefully it'll buy us some time."

Sure thing Jes!. And there's...wait. Jes? l, I think I hear something. Someone might be coming!"

"Get out of there Kinnar, now! Don't worry about us. " Jes said. There was no more response.

"Kinnar? What's he doing here?" Marin asked while they hurried towards the elevator.

"I couldn't stop him from going after you. Figured I'd rather have him helping me then out here by himself. " Jes explained.

"Stubborn as always. So where are we going to go?" Marin asked.

"Imperial reinforcements will be here soon so we need to get out of here quickly. I figured we make for the transport shuttles in the hangar and escape to Mirakeii. We should still have some time before the power comes back on. We then..."

They were barely two steps out of the elevator at the back of the comm building when two huge floodlights were switched on directed straight at them.

"That's far enough." A cold, calculated voice spoke out from the brightness and a slender young man wearing a black military uniform stepped into the light. When his eyes had adjusted to the light Jes also saw the officer was flanked by five storm troopers with their blaster rifles pointed at them.

Jes instinctively started to raise his blaster but stopped when the officer said:

"Don't do anything stupid Mr. Darrin. Not even a Selonia Ghost could outdraw all of us. "

"Great, a fan. " muttered Jes and he lowered his blaster.

"Now, we're only after the girl Mr. Darrin. If you put your blaster down and surrender, you have my word you will not be harmed. "

"You seem to have me at an advantage mister..." Jes asked, hoping to stall a bit in while he frantically tried to figure out how to escape.

"Major Aries, imperial naval intelligence. Now, drop the weapon and surrender. This is your last warning. " The Major said, now with a far more commanding voice.

"What happened to 'we're only after the girl?" Jes asked.

"That was also meant to imply we don't need you alive. " the major answered.

"Now, your weapon. Drop it and gently kick it this way. "

This guy was serious, Jes instantly knew. He was also right. No way Jes would take them all out before they would open fire. He didn't see any way out, and started to slowly lower his blaster. "

Marin was surprised. Not because of the ambush. But because she wasn't panicking. Instead, she felt calm. She heard Jes say a few words but they sounded far away. It felt like she was aware of every detail that was going on. Her own heartbeat, slight movements in one of the trooper's stance. He felt nervous, she could see it. Maybe his first time in the field? The other troopers were not as tense. They clearly didn't expect any action. She also felt the cold confidence of the officer. She saw Jes kick his blaster in the direction of the imperials. It seemed to take forever to cross such a small distance. Then she saw it. She saw one of the left troopers go down. But it hadn't happened yet.

A blaster bolt from one of the high buildings behind the space port. But they hadn't shot yet.

she realized she'd seen a glimpse of what was about to happen and knew she didn't have any time to lose. She had to act. She hoped that Jes, with all his combat experience, would instantly know what to do. Yoda had once taught her to move objects using the force. Time still slowly creeping by, she concentrated. Gathering all the power from within her. She felt awake, stronger than ever. It was almost like master Yoda was at her side.

She focused on the right two troopers, closed her eyes. And the instant the shot came she launched all the power she collected in the direction of the troopers.

Everything happened at once. The left most trooper went down from the shot, the right most troopers flew ten meters away, the sheer force knocking them out The trooper right next to the officer had instinctively aimed at the incoming fire from behind. He also fell down with a blaster wound in the chest. Jes had immediately tackled the surprised officer who, for a moment, was startled. While they were wrestling on the ground Marin realized there was one trooper left. It was the rookie. She saw him on one knee raising his blaster towards Jes.

Everything Jes had taught her came back. The advantages of being small, versatile and easily underestimated against the disadvantages of being fully armored and carrying a large weapon in a close quarters fight. She'd never felt so certain of what she was doing. She quickly rolled towards him and launched a powered kick to what she hoped was a weak point in the armor, the knees. The trooper clearly hadn't expected an assault from the girl. Fighting to keep his balance, he tried to raise his blaster rifle but a few quick punches sent him falling to the ground. Marin quickly rolled towards the blaster rifle the trooper had dropped during his fall but just as she was picking it up she saw from the corner of her eye that the trooper had drawn a sidearm and was aiming at her. Just as he was about to fire he collapsed forward. Marin saw Jes standing a few meters to her right. He had apparently recovered his blaster and it was still pointing at the downed last trooper.

"Marin, are you alright?" Jes asked.

"Yeah..." she answered a bit hesitantly. "I'm not hurt. "

"Good, let's move. Backup will be here soon. "

"Who do you think it was on the rooftop back there, Art?"

Jes, who swore under his breath that he'd broke his comm in the struggle, said: "I don't know Marin. But I doubt that he made it back so soon from the power junctions. Whoever it was, he or she did create us an opportunity, let's not waste it. Come on, and take the rifle. We might need it yet." And they started to jog towards hangar five.

 ** _Andean, Space port exterior, rooftop_**

"They're moving further into the spaceport! It looks like they're alright!" Kinnar said, putting down his electrobinoculars.

"Should we go follow them?"

"No," answered Esper, checking the hunting rifle.

"I might be a decent shot but I'm no soldier. I think we will be more trouble than help when we move in closer. We helped them out of the ambush, they're on their own now. We should get out of here quickly though, backup is probably on the way. "

"I hope they make it out of here. " Kinnar said, putting the electrobinoculars back in his pouch.

"I hope so too Kinnar, I hope so too."

 ** _Andean, Space port hangars_**

The hangars of the space port were square buildings with a large open courtyard inside which contained the landing pads. They reached hangar five without further trouble.

"Good, the shuttle's still there. " Jes said.

Jes, being one of the people who used it regularly to make runs to Mirakeii, knew all the necessary codes to get it off the ground. He'd also spent time familiarizing Marin with the basic controls in case he was unable fly."

Just when he keyed in the code to open the access hatch he saw storm troopers entering the hangar building.

"Drat! Marin, give me the rifle, quickly! You get inside and start up the shuttle. I'll try to keep them off us!" Jes said, the urgency in his voice didn't escape Marin.

"Ok, on my way!" And as Marin quickly made her way to the cockpit Jes started to open fire on the storm troopers. Luckily this hangar was made to support far larger vessels than the shuttle. This meant that there was a lot of open space between Jes and the doors through which the storm troopers entered the hangar. The blaster rifle gave him the perfect tool for suppressing fire, keeping the storm troopers pinned down for now. A moment later the head lights and signal lights of the shuttle turned on followed by the steady hum of the shuttle's engines. "Ready for lift off!" Jes heard Marin scream over the sound of the engines and blaster fire. "OK GO, GO! I'll be right in!" And as he lay down a final spray of blaster fire towards the troopers he jumped inside the shuttle as it lifted of the ground. He ran towards the cockpit and jumped in the pilot seat, next to a heavily breathing Marin.

"Excellent Marin! I'll take it from here. Let's get out of here." And while the troopers fired pointlessly at the shuttle's durasteel hull, it started its climb out of Andean's atmosphere.

"We did it!" Marin shouted.

"Let's hope we we're in time. " Jes answered.


	15. Dark trial

**_Andean, atmosphere_**

As they flew through the thick cloud deck, further and further away from the planet, the starry blackness of space covered their viewport.

"What's that?" Marin asked as a bright triangular object appeared In the center of their viewport. It got bigger as they flew closer. Jes squinted his eyes to get a better look.

"No...they're here! " he said with dread in his voice. When it finally hit him the incoming comm indicator started blinking. He activated the comm.

" _This is captain Erilon of the_ _Imperial Star Destroyer_ _Incisor. You are wanted for acts of treason against the Empire. Power down you engines and prepare to be pulled aboard_."

Jes immediately closed the comm.

"Quickly Marin, strap up. This might get bumpy. "

"Where are we going to go?!" Marin asked with slight panic in her voice.

"Back to Andean. We're too close to Andean to jump to light speed and we don't stand a chance against that destroyer." Jes said.

"What about their tractor beam."

"I think they might have made a mistake by coming this close to the planet to intercept us. Andean's gravity well will distort the tractor beam's gravity field at this range. With a bit of luck we're small enough to break free. Hold on!"

And Jes frantically punched the controls for the shuttle to turn around and head back into the atmosphere at full speed.

The shuttle started to shake and slow down as the tractor beam tried to get hold.

"Marin, see those four switches near the far right? Hit the two red ones!" Jes said.

"Ok, I've got red blinking indicators here and it's asking for an override code. " Marin said puzzled.

"Enter code one, five, five, seven. It will direct more power to the engines. " Jes explained.

"One, five, five, seven, Done! " Marin said as she entered the code. The lights turned green, the shuttle started to shake harder but speed was going up again.

"Let's hope she holds together." Jes said grimly.

A few seconds later the shaking stopped and they sped forward back towards the cloud deck.

"Yes! " Jes shouted. Followed by a "Whoohoo!" from Marin.

"Wait, what's this?" Jes said looking at one of the displays.

As the shuttle punched through the cloud deck their viewport suddenly lit up with green blaster fire.

"Star fighters on our six. " Jes said. " They must have already been out there. Hold on, I'm going to try to lose them!" Jes said.

" _Don't be foolish. You're in an unarmed civilian shuttle. Slow down and follow the fighters to a safe landing location."_ A voice cracked through the comm.

"No way." Jes said and executed a few evasive maneuvers.

Suddenly the shuttle shook violently and lights stared blinking everywhere.

"What happened!" Marin cried out.

"Damnit! They hit our engines. We've lost all thrust. I'll have to make an emergency landing!"

As Jes tried to get the shuttle under control, more and more alarms went off inside the cockpit.

"I can't get her stabilized! I'll try to slow down as much as I can and then we'll have to eject!"

Marin looked at him with terror in her eyes.

"Look, they don't have us yet! This is going to be a walk in the park compared to the escape pod landing we did back on Ba'an. Here, put on this emergency oxygen mask." And he handed her an oxygen mask from an overhead compartment.

He put his hand on her shoulder and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Marin, look at me. We just flew over Lervig's canyon. My estimation is we'll land somewhere in the forest beyond, east of the Jedi ruins. We know this ground, they don't. If we get separated, head west and make for the ruins. Remember how we navigated there?"

"Sure. Canyon, forest, east, make for the ruins. I got it Jes." Marin answered, sounding more calm and confident already. Every possible alarm was now sounding at the same time and the cockpit was covered in the ominous dark glow of all the emergency indicators.

"Ok, hold tight. I'll hit eject on one. Three, two...

Suddenly the viewport erupted in a chaos of wind and noise and she was violently thrown upward by the shuttle's emergency atmospheric eject sequence. To her surprise she could breathe easily through the mask. In a flash she saw two dark shapes pass below her. Must be the star fighters. A big orange parachute opened up over her head as she started her descent. From up here she could see how badly the shuttle was doing. The complete aft part of the shuttle was ablaze and it went down quickly toward the tree tops. The shuttle was a civilian craft. This meant that the parachutes were bright orange. and the co-pilot seat, which she was still sitting in, was equipped with a brightly blinking red emergency light so ejected pilots could easily be found. This also meant that she could probably locate Jes while she was still in the air. The ejection force and wind currents had drifted them a few hundred meters apart already. He was also descending more quickly than her. She looked around, trying to get her bearing. Right when she thought she recognized the clearing at the ruins she hit the canopy and tumbled down through the trees. The parachute and its cables caught the many thick branches of the trees which made her landing unexpectedly easy. She ended up hanging only a few feet from the ground. She unbuckled the seatbelts and quickly got out. The star fighters must have spotted the ejection and the seat was probably sending out an automated distress call telling them exactly where she landed . They had probably called in ground support already. She had to get to Jes, quickly. Marin took a quick look at the stars, determined the way east and started walking.

 ** _Andean, woodlands near Lervig's canyon_**

Jes' landing had been far from soft. During the ejection his parachute had ruptured. This had caused him to spin downward at a less then comfortable speed. He had hit the tree tops hard, right at the edge of a clearing where he had made a rough landing. When he unbuckled the belts and tried to get up he felt a sharp sting in his right leg. When he looked down he saw a large gash in his right calf. He'd probably caught it on a sharp branch on the way down. It was bleeding heavily. He wasn't going anywhere like this. Walking with this wound might cause the bleeding to get worse or he might pick up an infection. Luckily there was an emergency med-pack in the back of the pilot seat. He retrieved the med-pack and started working on his wound.

When his leg was bandaged up and he'd injected some anesthetics he tried to stand.

"Won't be running marathons anytime soon but it'll have to do. " He said to himself quietly. At that moment he heard the engines of an approaching craft.

"Oh, come on!" He swore under his breath and limped off into the bushes. Within moments the clearing was lit up by the landing lights of an imperial shuttle. As it approached it folded it's two bottom wings upward and landed in the middle of the clearing. Stormtroopers started emerging from the exit ramp but there was something strange about the positions they took up. It looked like they were an escort. But for who? Just when Jes wanted to move to get a better look, a tall black figure emerged from the shuttle.

"Now who in the five brothers is that?" Jes whispered to himself.

Standing more than six foot tall, wearing a black suit of armor without any visible military rank, a black helmet and... a cape. With a confident stride he walked to the center of the circle the troopers made up. Whoever that was, Jes instantly knew he was their leader. But where others would undoubtedly see a dire situation, Jes saw an opportunity. Against an force like this, his blaster wouldn't be enough and he couldn't outrun them. He needed a weapon to even the odds and these troopers had many. He just needed to plan his attack and wait for the right time. Exactly at that moment the black figure turned and looked straight at him, even though he was completely hidden in the bushes.

"Over there." the figure spoke with a heavy, metallic voice, pointing his right hand directly at Jes' position. Jes knew he'd been compromised and instinctively took a step back. One of the Stormtroopers, probably one of the less experienced ones, immediately fired in his direction. The shot was spot-on and should have made a clean hole right through his chest where it not for the fact that the blaster bolt suddenly froze in mid-air halfway to where Jes was hiding.

Jes couldn't believe his eyes. But he knew he didn't have time to think about it now. The next second all blasters were aimed directly at him. Jes saw that the black figure had raised his left hand and said "Hold your fire!"

For the next few seconds he just kept staring directly at Jes' position. Jes couldn't believe what he was seeing but knew he had to get out of there. He quietly moved backwards, further into the bushes. Then the dark figure said:

"She's not here. Just the old man. "And lowered his hand. The blaster bolt continued its path and scorched the bushes Jes had been hiding in just a few seconds ago.

"You, you," he said, pointing at the two nearest troopers.

"come with me. I need to find the girl. The rest, hunt him down and kill him. "

And with that he turned around and walked back into the shuttle followed by the two troopers. The others were starting to move towards Jes' position, blaster rifles ready. Jes knew he needed to act quickly. He moved further back into the bushes quietly and tried to find a way to recreate the element of surprise. The opportunity came when two more troopers came to the assistance of the others seconds after the shuttle lifted off. They were mounted on military speeder bikes. Just what he needed.

 ** _Andean, woodlands near Jedi ruins_**

It was hard to find landmarks she and Jes had used to navigate to the Jedi ruins in the dark. The only illumination was one of Andean's pale moons. She had to backtrack a couple of times to make sure she was on the right trail. And now it seemed that the wet season had started early. What had started as a light drizzle had quickly turned into heavy rain. On top of that the wind had picked up. It was almost if even the elements had turned against her.

Soaked by the rain, bruised by her narrow escape from a crashing shuttle and pissed off at the universe in general because nothing seemed to work out very well today, she moved on, determined to reach the ruins and find Jes. Together they would find a way out of this mess. A few times she heard the faint wine of star fighters flying by but none were close enough to spot her. She thought about Kinnar, Esper and Art. Were they ok? Was she ever going to see them again? She felt tears well up at the thought of losing all her friends again. She pushed the feeling aside and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. What surprised her however, was that she wasn't afraid. There sure were plenty of reasons to be. But again, she felt a comforting presence. She couldn't really place it. Though she knew she was all alone, it felt as if someone was with her.

After another few hundred meters through the dark wet forest she saw it. There they were, fifty meters ahead. The Jedi ruins! She'd made it!

"Jes? Jes?" She yelled. No one answered. No sound but the static of heavy rain and the howling wind. No sign of Jes yet, she'd have to take a look around. Maybe he was inside, taking shelter from the rain.

Just as she was heading to the entrance she saw a bright light reflecting off the wet building. When she turned around she could make out two landing lights in the distance. It looked like some kind of space craft landing on the ridge she and Jes had used to make camp the first time they came here. It was the only open place around big enough to land.

"It must be Jes!" She said to herself. "No one else knows about this place. "

What was she supposed to do? Stay at the ruins? Or head to the shuttle. She figured that shuttle might be their way of this planet and that maybe there was no time to lose.

So she started heading back through the forest, towards the shuttle. About half way there, in the middle a thick part of the forest, full of large trees, she felt a slight tingling in the back of her mind. Something wasn't right. She looked around but couldn't see anything. The rain made it hard to see in the dark and the sound made it impossible to hear anything but the loudest noises. She headed on quietly, moving from tree to tree decrease her visibility when suddenly she was hit by fear. A spirit-breaking, unforgiving fear. When she turned around she saw him. A dark shape barely visible in the pale, dim light of the moon.

"Marin Koorna. Jedi. " she heard him say in a low, metallic voice. As he spoke, she was paralyzed by a fear that flowed through her like a snake.

"Your order has fallen. " The dark man continued with an ominous voice.

"Your friends are dead. So you ran, and hid. "

"I felt tour fear Marin. You fear that you will lose everything again. "

"I felt your anger. You're angry because there was nothing you could do to help them."

"I felt your hate Marin. Your hate of the ones who did this to you."

"But what if I told you that the order you served was corrupt to its bones. That the so called wisdom they taught you was nothing but lies."

Marin winced at the bitterness in his voice. The man had stepped closer but Marin was still paralyzed. What was he talking about? The Jedi council, corrupt?

The words about her fear had hit home though. She thought back at the day of the attack on Coruscant. Images flashed in front of her eyes, the bodies of Johk and master Erad'un, the temple on fire. She shivered.

"I also felt the power within you. " For a moment all she heard was the thundering rain. Marin couldn't move and felt confused. Then he continued.

"What if I told you that they were holding you back. With the power of the dark side, you would never have to lose anyone again. Let me train you and you would never again be helpless. "

It was difficult to focus. Her mind was clouded. Could he be right? Marin thought. Was this the power she was searching for? But the thoughts quickly disappeared when she suddenly noticed something on her hand. There was something off. Something on the edge of her vision. It looked like, she was wearing a ring. It wasn't hers. She could hardly see it. But when She closed her eyes, she saw it clearer. These weren't her hands. She was also holding something. A long, metal cylinder. It was a lightsaber. It looked like the one they saw in the tomb they visited earlier. Though she knew it couldn't be real, she tried turning it on. With her eyes still closed she could see two bright golden blades shooting out from either end of the hilt. She was holding a golden, dual bladed lightsaber. Suddenly she felt more powerful than ever. She opened her eyes. The lightsaber and the ring were gone. She saw her own hands again. But the paralyzing fear was flowing from her body. And then she recognized it. She remembered the fear, she'd felt it before. She'd never felt this powerful in her life. And when she looked up towards the dark man she suddenly saw it clearly.

"IT WAS YOU! " Marin screamed. "YOU DESTROYED THE ORDER, YOU KILLED THE JEDI!"

Though the black mask showed no emotion the figure took a step back, surprised by the sheer force in Marin's voice.

"IT WAS YOU WHO DESTROYED THE TEMPLE."

"I WAS THERE!"

"I FELT IT!"

"IT IS YOU WHO IS CORRUPTED!"

It was as if the rain and the storm suddenly avoided her. Creating an invisible field around her. The man in black took another step backward and put his hand on something on his hip.

"Don't be a fool. Together we could build a new order! An order which would rule the galaxy!" The masked man said with a powerful voice.

Marin took another step forward and raised her voice even further. She noticed that when she opened her mouth it was not just her own voice that came out. Like it was mixed up with that of someone else. A woman.

"NO! YOU FAILED!"

"WE ARE ALIVE! AND THERE ARE MORE! I'VE FELT IT!"

"YOU WILL NEVER SUCCEED! AND I WILL NEVER JOIN YOU, SITH!" Marin heard herself scream.

The dark figure composed himself and with his cold, metallic voice he said in a grim tone:

"Then, Marin Koorna, you will die. "

A crimson blade shot out from his hand illuminating the dark forest around them in an eerie red glow.

"Like.. the.. rest. "

When he took a step forward the world in front of Marin blew up.

 ** _Andean, woodlands, looking for Marin_**

Trees were flashing by, the dimmed headlight of the speeder bike only slightly illuminating the narrow path ahead.

This was madness! Jes thought. Whoever ordered speeder bikes to patrol a forest was clearly insane.

He quickly juked to the right to avoid another massive tree.

He'd been lucky with the troopers. Their jumpy movements betrayed their lack of field experience. Most of them were probably new recruits. And they had been terrified. Whether it was of their black caped leader or that someone had told them what they were up against he didn't know. Their fear had made them jumpy and predictable. Who knew, maybe the legend of the Selonia ghosts finally did him some good.

The four remaining troopers had huddled together in some nervous version of a patrol formation and had headed of in the general direction where Jes had been hiding. It had been easy to draw them away deeper into the forest thinking Jes had made a run for it. Meanwhile Jes had returned to the two newly arrived scout troopers who remained behind as a rear guard. When the patrol had been far enough away he quietly took out one of the troopers, shot the other at point blank range and took one of the speeder bikes together with a heavy blaster rifle. He made sure to disable the other speeder bike and was out of there before the patrol could react. He had to get to Marin, quickly.

The blaster rifle he took was an E-11sg. A relatively small, mass produced, rapid fire blaster rifle. Though largely inaccurate and prone to overheat, the fire power made it perfect for when you needed to equip a massive army from scratch. The sg variant also sported an LF-2 plasma grenade launcher. In Jes' experience, some extra firepower would go a long way when facing bad odds.

He was approaching the ridge overlooking the valley with the ruins when he saw lights through the trees ahead.

He stopped his speeder bike and moved closer on foot to get a better look. The hard rain made for good cover. It was the same shuttle he'd seen before. Two guards were posted outside. He had no idea if anyone was inside but figured that if they had Marin, they would have already left. He had no time for this and quickly took out the two guards who hadn't seen him approaching.

The shuttle appeared to be empty. He took some electrobinoculars from the shuttle and scanned the valley.

The ruins were dark. Though an eerie glow seemed to be coming from somewhere in the forest, about halfway to the ruins. Could be Marin, Jes thought. He quickly got back to his speeder bike and headed down into the valley.

He'd slowed to a crawl and turned off his headlight when he approached the glow. He thought he heard a woman shout but couldn't make out what was going on yet in the heavy rain. He wanted to keep his element of surprise, so he decided to get off his bike and move further on foot.

His heart sank when he peeked around a large tree and saw the black masked man standing opposed to Marin. He immediately noticed the masked man was in a defensive pose with one foot behind the other and he had his hand on something on his hip, probably a weapon. He seemed entranced by what was happening about fifty meters away. When Jes looked at Marin he couldn't believe his eyes. The glow he'd seen from a distance had come from Marin. She was radiating. The trees around her were covered in an eerie golden glow. And the voice he heard was Marin too. At least it seemed to come from her. She didn't sound like her though. More powerful, more commanding. Jes could have sworn he heard two voices at once. One belonging to Marin and one to an older woman. He hadn't heard all they… she said but it was something about the Jedi being killed and the temple being destroyed.

Suddenly the glow that surrounded Marin's seemed to fade. Jes saw the dark man compose himself. He heard him say something to Marin but couldn't make out what it was. Then the area was illuminated in a red glow when the dark man switched on his lightsaber. Jes suddenly realized that the dark man still hadn't noticed him yet. His attention was still completely fixated on Marin. Jes knew he had no time to lose and pointed his blaster rifle directly at the dark caped figure. He prayed that his estimation was right. Though it was danger close, Marin should be just out of range. He armed the plasma grenade launcher, aimed, and pulled the trigger without hesitation. He launched a plasma grenade directly at the dark man.

Jes saw the dark man turn around and raise his fist the moment he pulled the trigger.

The shockwave of the explosion had thrown Marin to the ground. The red glow of the man's light saber illuminated the smoke. The man had been thrown to the ground but he was still there. She saw a large tree starting to fall away from where the dark man had stood. With all her concentration she used the force and focused on the falling tree to shift its momentum the other way. Slowly, the tree started falling towards the dark man. Suddenly the red glow disappeared. Marin felt a shockwave of anger as she felt an opposing force on the falling tree. He was countering. And he was immensely powerful. The broken tree lifted of the ground completely, hovering towards Marin.

Jes saw Marin sitting on one knee with her eyes closed and her hands in the air. Suddenly he noticed the tree, it was changing direction. Marin was pulling it towards the smoke. He couldn't see anything through the smoke. _He survived that?!_

Then Jes saw the red glow disappear and the tree started to slow down. As the smoke disappeared Jes saw the dark figure kneeling there with his hands in the air. He said to himself: " _Not today!_ "

And opened fire at the dark man. Immediately, the lightsaber came back on and he started deflecting Jes' heavy blaster fire. This seemed to take up too much of his concentration and the tree slowly started falling towards him again and finally came down on top of him. He was down. This was their chance.

Marin saw rapid blaster fire rain down on the dark figure and felt the resistance on the tree flowing away. This place was still helping her. Letting the Force flow through her she still felt more powerful then she had ever held possible. She concentrated one more time and pushed with all her strength. The tree came down on the dark man. Suddenly she saw Jes limping towards her. He pulled her up and said: "Marin, quickly, can you walk?"

"I think I'm ok. " Marin said.

"Come, follow me, quick! " Jes said and took her towards the speeder bike.

"Get on the back, let's go!" and they sped off.

When they were on their way Jes asked Marin:

"Once we're out of here you'll have to tell me about that caped fool. Did we get him?"

"No, " Marin said. "He's still alive. I can feel his anger. "

"Yeah well, wait until he finds out we stole his shuttle. " Jes responded drily.

"We stole his shuttle?!" Marin asked surprised.

"Not yet. " Jes said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Oh. Isn't it guarded?" Marin asked.

"Not anymore. "

"Ah. " Marin decided to leave it at that.

Once they arrived at the shuttle it was indeed deserted.

"Who's the man in black?" Jes asked as he got of the speeder bike.

"I'm not sure, but I think he's a Sith lord. I know He's responsible for killing the Jedi. I felt his presence at the temple back on Coruscant but I didn't know it then. "

"Good. " Jes answered.

"Good? How is that good!?" Marin said surprised.

"It matches my expectations. It seemed to me those troopers I fought were more scared of him then I was. If he's some big scary sith-chief in this new Empire, the people on that Star Destroyer up there might be just as scared of him. They may hesitate before disabling his shuttle or locking a tractor beam on it. " Jes explained.

"Won't they try to hail us?" Marin asked.

"They'll probably scan us first. And they'll see our comm system is damaged. "

"Is it? " Marin asked skeptically.

Jes got the blaster rifle from his back, aimed it at the antenna array on the tip of the shuttle's dorsal wing and fired.

"It is now. We just need enough time to escape Andean's gravity well. Then we jump to hyperspace. I hope their fear will make them hesitate just long enough. Come on, let's get off this planet." Jes said, sounding more tired than before and he limped aboard the shuttle.

"Won't they follow us?" Marin asked while she followed him aboard.

"I expect they won't risk leaving him here."

"What if he already reported what happened. " Marin asked.

"Then I'm afraid we're screwed. But I doubt he got a signal out from a personal transmitter in this weather. Come, let's get to the cockpit."

Marin followed him up the boarding ramp. "What happened to your leg? Did you get shot?"

"Nah, I had a rough landing. I'll be fine. How about you? What was that back in the forest. You were all lit up!" Jes asked while he started the engines.

"I...I don't know. I remember being paralyzed with fear and suddenly I could see clearly and felt strong enough to take on the universe. It might have something to do with the ruins. " Marin explained.

"Well, whatever it was, that sith was a surprised as I was. "

As they flew upward Marin looked through the side viewports.

"There's fires there! And explosions! That's where the homesteads are!

Jes! We have to go back! We have to help Kinnar and Art and Esper!"

"No Marin, we cannot. " Jes answered with sorrow in his voice.

"But we have to help them Jes!" Marin said frantically.

"Marin, look at me. We'll only cause more problems for them if we go back. The entire Imperial force was looking for us. Soon, word will get out that we escaped. The best we can hope for is that we draw a large part of the attention away from Andean and it's people when we make our run. "

Marin looked out the viewport in silence. She knew he was right. And she hated it.

As they were leaving Andean's atmosphere the imperial capital ship came into view.

 ** _ISS Incisor, bridge_**

"Captain, I've got Lord Vader's shuttle leaving atmosphere." An imperial officer said.

Captain Erilon looked surprised.

"Lieutenant, I wasn't aware that Lord Vader would be returning?"

"There has been no report sir."

"Hail the shuttle, lieutenant."

"Sir, they're not responding. Our scanners indicate their comm array is damaged and inoperable. We cannot hail them, sir."

"That is unfortunate." Erilon hadn't signed up for this. Lord Vader was not someone who you wanted to anger, or even annoy. He needed to know more before he fired up the tractor beams.

"Speed and heading?" He asked the lieutenant.

"Slow cruising speed sir. And it's coming straight at us. Approaching on a docking vector, ETA twelve minutes."

"Launch a fighter escort, do a visual scan. See if he needs any assistance."

"Yes, sir."

 ** _Andean, orbit_**

"There it is. " Marin pointed out a few moments later.

"Right, we're being scanned. " Jes said, looking at the control panel.

He kept the shuttle on a steady course towards the star destroyer.

"Remember, we're pretending to go towards the docking bay. Hopefully that will keep them from being suspicious for a while. Once we're close enough, we will pretend to have engine trouble. Hopefully that will mask us preparing a hyperspace jump. Now, we're about a million times lighter than that destroyer. So Andean's gravity well shouldn't bother us as much as it's bothering them. We should be able to jump to light speed before we'll be close enough for them to get a good visual of us."

Once they got closer and closer to the Incisor the sheer size of the ship hit Marin.

"Whoooaah, it's huge!"

"It is. And armed to the teeth. You'd need quite a force to take on one of these. "

"They're sending fighters. Three incoming. " Marin said, monitoring the shuttle's scanners.

"They'll be here in a few minutes."

When they were almost half-way Jes punched some buttons and the engines died and turned the emergency indicator lights on.

"Ok, engines offline, we're drifting. Jump coordinates calculated. Just a little longer and we're in range. "

"They'll probably do a flyby to assess the damage." Jes said.

"Almost there.…." Jes noticed he was sweating.

"Fighters closing in. They're picking up speed. They must have figured out something is wrong. I'm also getting a reading from the tractor beam projectors!" Marin said.

"Too late. " Jes said, and punched the controls to engage the hyperdrive. A moment later the viewport was filled with star lines.

"We did it, didn't we?" Marin yelled!

Slowly, a smile crept across Jes' face. He noticed he had been holding his breath for a while and slowly exhaled. He rested his head in the back of the seat and said:

"We sure did, kid. "

Marin unbuckled her seat belts and gave Jes a big hug.

"I'll even forgive you for calling me kid. "

"Hah, sorry Marin." Jes took a few deep breaths and wiped the sweat from his forehead. That had been a lot closer than he had hoped.

"We'll be making at least five jumps to mask our trail. Let's try to get some rest in the meanwhile. "


	16. Rebels

**_Omereth system, outer rim_**

Marin had retreated to the shuttle's cabin where she hoped to get some rest after this long, devastating day. She tried to concentrate but none of her Jedi meditation techniques seemed to work at the moment. She was tired and distracted. She couldn't get her mind of Kinnar, and Art and Esper. Not knowing anything about what happened to them, her mind started filling in the blanks with the worst possible scenario's. She opened her eyes, shaking her head violently, trying to lose those terrible thoughts.

Jes was right. There was no going back. Again, she had lost everything she built up. And again there was nothing she could do about it. Again they would have to start over.

A dark voice in the back of her mind tried to convince her the dark man had been right, maybe the dark side could solve all her problems. But the comforting presence in the forest had given her the strength to defy him. And as she remembered Yoda's voice from her vision she knew she'd made the right call. She had passed the test. But it still felt terrible.

It was then she realized that from now on things would be different. No more running.

When Jes punched the hyperdrive commands once again after rerunning some tests on the jump calculations, the shuttle made its fourth seemingly random jump to yet another system which Jes expected not to be under Imperial control. There would be no one to watch them jumping in and out. No trace of any tail yet. The star destroyer would have to maneuver out of Andean's gravity well before they could jump after them and Jes doubted they would leave their sith-leader there before leaving. It would be nearly impossible to find them now.

What was left was to decide where to go now. To find a place they could ditch a high-profile Imperial shuttle without having working communication systems. The credits they would earn by selling it would get them a long way to finding another hiding place. But Jes knew he couldn't risk it. He knew that none of the parties which would be interested in buying a hot imperial military shuttle could be trusted. The chance they would sell them out would be far too big. Well, they still had some time to figure something out. He had just closed his eyes to get some well-earned rest when Marin barged into the cockpit.

"I want to fight!" She said with a raised voice.

Completely caught off guard, Jes looked at her with a tired expression.

"You want to what now?" He managed to answer.

"No more running. I want to fight!

Not so much against the Empire, but for the people who suffer from it. People like Kinnar, Esper and Art! It's what I've been trained to do all my life Jes! The order might have fallen but that doesn't mean I can't still live by its ideals!

I know you don't want to fight anymore Jes but I'm done running! I want to..."

Marin kept going on about why she wanted to fight while Jes' thoughts wandered off. Back to the battles he fought, the brothers he'd lost. He wanted to tell Marin that war would take you to dark places. Places you never knew you had in you. He'd seen it in pirates, terrorists. But also in some of his brothers, his friends. War could break anyone, anyone. Occasionally master Yoda had mentioned the dark side of the force. Jes always immediately thought of war. According to Jes, one didn't need to be a Jedi to fall to the dark side. Jes wanted to tell her she would lose more and more people she cared about in war. That it would change her forever. And he wanted to tell her a lot more.

But he recognized the look in her eyes; Determined, naive and full of fire. He'd seen it many times before in new recruits. Young soldiers, among the best of the best, who wanted to make a difference. Who wanted to fight for all the right reasons.

Seeing that look in her eyes made him realize that maybe, maybe she was right. Maybe they had to fight for those who couldn't, just because they could. Maybe a bit of naivety was what the galaxy needed. And who was he kidding. A mechanic? Farming? It had all seemed like a dream now. Those last days of running and fighting? He hadn't felt alive like this in a long time. He was bred for this shit.

Jes suddenly realized Marin had been ranting on non-stop and he hadn't heard half she said.

"... and I'll fight without you if I have to! I will go-"

"Ok." Jes interrupted her. Marin stopped talking and gave him a questioning look.

"Ok Marin. We'll fight. "

"We will?" Marin asked surprised. "You're, you're serious?"

"Yes. On one condition. We train. There is much you have to learn. "

Marin gave Jes, who was still in the pilot seat, a big hug. "Thank you Jes! "

"Watch the leg, watch the leg! " Jes groaned. "It's alright. You're right. We'll fight for them who cannot. I'm done running as well. "

"Where do we start?" Marin asked, eager to get going.

"We'll need to ditch the shuttle first. It's too hot to sell. But I think if we hide it somewhere, we might find it useful later. Then we go visit an old friend. "

"An old friend?" Marin asked.

"Senator Garm Bel Iblis. …..

And the view screen was filled with star lines as the shuttle flew through hyperspace.


	17. Teaser - Why we fight

**Why we fight**

 _"This is Red leader. Scans have confirmed target payload. Resistance is light. Looks like they didn't want to draw any attention to themselves. Commence phase Bravo. I repeat, target payload confirmed. Commence phase Bravo."_

Marin watched the various tactical feeds scroll by on the monitors. It was cramped in the shuttle's small comm room. There were three of them and they all wanted to hear everything that was going on. They were in a modified boarding craft, part of a small strike force only a micro jump away from their target. Patiently waiting until the signal came for their phase of the attack. Jes was right behind her, carefully examining the live mission data that was being transmitted by Red and Gold squadrons. Marin shot a quick glance at Jes. He nodded slightly with a sorrowful look on his face. Payload confirmed. So the rumors were true then. There was a time that Marin wouldn't have believed that even the Empire would be capable of something like this. But she'd seen a lot in the past few years. Way too much, she thought sometimes. Everybody kept quiet, waiting for further updates.

 _"This is Gold leader. Commencing phase Bravo. Gold squadron jumping in. I repeat, Gold squadron jumping in. Keep 'em off our backs."_

This was a critical phase in the mission. She pictured the next phase in her mind. Gold squadron would jump in and disable the four imperial transports as quickly as possible. There was a lot that could go wrong. Even with a simple objective like that. Based on intelligence it was estimated that Imperial forces would be able to respond within thirty minutes. If the intel was faulty or incomplete and response times were lower, they wouldn't stand a chance. The whole thing could also be an elaborate trap. The risk of an imperial deception was the main reason for deploying only such a small task force with such a crazy plan of attack. But they were rebels. Scattered, loosely coordinated bands of idealists fighting against overwhelming military might of the Galactic Empire. They had to take the risk. A high risk for a small victory. A victory that could wake up the rest of the galaxy. Rally up more people to fight for their cause.

 _"Copy that Gold leader, engaging fighter escorts."_

The voice of Red leader cracked over the intercom. Red squadron was flying a mix of A-wings and X-wings for maximum flexibility in this mission. If they were right, the imperials would probably call in reinforcements the second that Red squadron jumped in. The speed of the A-wings would be crucial in determining if their intel was valid. Extremely fast while still packing quite a punch. Marin loved flying and A-wing. She secretly hoped she would be picked for the scanning task. But she wasn't part of Red squadron. And she and Jes had other valuable skills. The X-wing's firepower would have to eliminate any resistance they encountered. Only then the final phase of the mission could begin. That is where Diton, Marin and Jes came in. She focused on the mission data that kept coming in. Gold squadron had lost one bomber due to a technical malfunction in combination with enemy fire. Other than that, things seemed to be going as planned.

 _"Gold leader here, all target's disabled. Returning home."_

 _"Affirmative Gold leader. Mynock-one, you are clear to jump in. Commence phase delta. I repeat, commence phase delta."_

That was their queue. They would be jumping any second now. Marin took a deep breath and sat down in her seat. The door to the cockpit was closed but she heard the pilot of her boarding craft over the mission comm.

" _Affirmative Red leader. Strike team mynock, this is mynock-one. We are go for delta. I repeat, go for delta."_

Marin felt a light tremble as the boarding craft made a micro-jump. She still couldn't believe they were actually doing this. She had been on numerous missions for the rebellion. Most of them reconnaissance or intelligence, but sometimes things got ugly. She was well trained and didn't scare easily but this? This was just crazy. But she knew the stakes. If they could pull it off, it would be well worth it. A few seconds later there was another small tremble, indicating they had arrived at their target location.

 _"This is mynock-one. Strike team mynock, report in."_

 _"Mynock-three reporting in."_

 _"Mynock-two reporting in."_

 _"All right, commence interception of designated targets."_

Suddenly she heard the pilot's voice again. But this time over the intercom.

 _"All right, back there. We have commenced our boarding run. ETA: one minute and twenty seconds. Get ready!"_

"You heard the man," Jes said. "let's suit up! Diton, you take the weapons. Remember, once we board, we'll be in and out in a few minutes. There's only three of us so we'll be outnumbered from the start. It's crucial that we fight our way to the prisoners as quickly as possible. Once we set them free and arm them, they'll help us with any further resistance. We then get everyone on the boarding craft and hopefully we'll be out of here before reinforcements arrive. Are we clear?"

"Clear" the bith barked.

"Clear". Marin said sharply.

"Good, Line up behind me. I'll take point. Jes said.

This was it. Marin thought. In and out. She checked her blaster for the last time, removing the safety. She closed her eyes and called on the Force to calm her spirit.

" _ETA fifteen seconds. Brace for impact"_

 _... to be continued_


End file.
